GoProvidence.com and the Providence Journal bring you Small Bites: Easy-to-Digest Recipes. Fall is the best time of year for apples in season. Raymond "Skip" Vanasse has spent 40 years with the Gregg’s Restaurant Group. The trick to this apple pie recipe is all in the preparation and procedure. The pre-baked apples allow you to pile them as high as you like, without having them settle when the pie is assembled and baked.
See the full recipe and video below:
Mile-High Apple Pie
- Gregg's Pie Dough (see recipe)
- Apple Spice Mix (see recipe)
- 1 egg white
- 1 tablespoon milk
- Sanding sugar
Prepare the dough and chill overnight. Pre-cook the pie shell.
Cut the apples and prepare the spice mix. Bake the apples and cool.
To assemble the pie, fill the cooked pie shell with cooled apples. Make into a mound to facilitate even cooking.
Roll out the 14-ounce portion of dough and place atop the mounded apples. Seal and trim the edge.
Mix the egg white and milk with a fork. Apply with a brush to the pie crust.
Dust with a coarse sanding sugar.
Score the pie with steam vents.
Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour or until golden brown.
Serves: 8-12
Gregg's Pie Dough
- 12 tablespoons vegetable shortening, room temperature
- 3 tablespoons butter, room temperature
- 2 1/2 cups pastry flour
- 2 tablespoons salt
- 4 1/2 ounces ice water
Combine the shortening, butter and flour until well mixed.
Dissolve salt in ice water. Add to the flour and shortening mix. Mix with a paddle on a stand mixer or by hand with a fork, until all the water is absorbed and loose wet dough is formed. Do not worry about overmixing.
Spread dough onto parchment paper and refrigerate overnight. Portion dough into one 10-ounce piece and one 14-ounce piece. You will still have enough to make a second pie.
Roll out the 10-ounce portion and place in an 11-inch disposable pie tin. (You can find them at Ocean State Job Lot.) There is no need to grease the tin. Top it with another 11-inch pie tin and trim off any excess dough.
Place upside down in a 350 degree oven topped with two cookie sheets. Bake for 45 minutes.
Allow to cool at room temperature.
Apple Spice Mix
- 5 pounds apples, your favorite variety
- 2/3 cup of sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons pastry flour
- 9 tablespoons cornstarch
Peel, core and slice apples into eighths.
Mix together sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, flour and cornstarch in a large bowl.
Toss apples with spice mix.
Spread into an even layer on a cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Cool apples to room temperature.
