Hello loves,
With Thanksgiving just a couple weeks away, I wanted to share my grandma’s apple pie recipe with you. Straight from my grandma’s kitchen, I’ve been watching her make this and then eating this pie myself ever since I was a kid. It’s simple, darn good and couldn’t be easier!
Now before we dive into it, there are 3 types of people. People who buy frozen pie crusts, people who make lard pie crusts and people who make butter pie crusts. I’m the latter, butter all the way for me. It creates the most perfect flaky crust that tastes straight from a bakery. Butter is also healthier for you than lard. And why buy a frozen crust that’s most likely full of preservatives when you can literally make them faster and easier than getting in your car, fighting traffic, finding parking and going inside to buy one. LET’S HEAR IT FOR BUTTER CRUSTS! I know that’s a lot of excitement for a pie crust but I really love pie… making them and eating them. Okay, let’s get to grandma’s apple pie recipe now.
Grandma’s Apple Pie
Grandma's Apple Pie
Equipment
- 1 food processor
Ingredients
Pie Crusts:
- 1 cup really cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes 2 sticks
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup ice water, to be used as needed
Apple Filling:
- 8-10 large granny smith apples, peeled cored and cut into 1/3"-1/2" pieces. Keep them pretty uniform in size to allow for even baking
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 tbsp Minute Tapioca
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- Squeeze of half a lemon, about 1 tbsp
- 1 egg beaten with a couple tbsp of water
- a few tbsp of cinnamon sugar for dusting the top
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Place cubed butter for pie crusts on a plate and place in freezer while you prep and measure other ingredients. Create a floured work surface for dough.
Pie Crusts:
- To a food processor add the flour, sugar and salt. Pulse a few times to combine. Fill a small bowl with ice and water.
- Once flour has been pulsed, add the cubed butter and 4 tbsp of ice water to start. Try to touch the butter as little as possible as the heat from you hands will start to melt the butter. Pulse until it starts to combine. Add more ice water, 1 tbsp at a time and pulsing between each addition, until clumps are starting to form. You should be able to pinch the dough and it will stick together a bit. It should not feel sticky. Once ready, dump out onto floured work surface and form into a big ball. Divide the ball in half and form each half in to a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge until ready to roll out.
- Once ready, take out of fridge and roll into size needed for pie dish. I always roll a little extra to allow for overhang and a nice crimping of the edge. Bake pie following instructions.
- For this apple pie recipe, roll out just one to begin with and place in bottom of pie dish. Lift the edges and allow them to fall down into the pan rather than pressing them down around the edges. If you press and stretch the dough, the crust will shrink. So allow it to fall in naturally. Now prep apples. Then roll out the other crust and place on top.
Apple filling:
- Combine the peeled, cored and sliced apples in a large bowl with the lemon juice, tapioca, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir well to evenly coat all the apples. Once well combined, let rest in bowl while you roll out the top crust.
- Once top crust is rolled out, use your hands to add the apples to the pie dish. The excess liquid in the bottom of the bowl we don't need so you can discard. Top with the 2 tbsp cut up butter. Then top with the other pie crust. Fold the edges of the top crust under the edges of the bottom crust to create a seal. Then crimp to your liking. Cut slits in top of crust to allow steam, brush with egg wash and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake at 350 for 1 hour until top is browned and the juices are bubbling. Let cool on a wire rack before slicing and serving. Enjoy!
Looking for more Fall baking recipes? My chai cake with cream cheese frosting is absolutely incredible as well as my pecan pie cheesecake bars! As always if you make any of my recipes, be sure to tag me @tessa_port! I love to see them. x
