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Apple Pie

This is my personal apple pie recipe... I hope you'll like it!

Ingredients for a 9 inches pie:
- A shortcrust pastry made of 150 grams of flour, 75 grams of soften unsalted butter, 60 grams of sugar, 2 egg yolks... Yes, the quantities are in grams... Get over it... it's much more precise, and if you want to make some pastries, precision is important... It's also very easy, as you can now buy extremely inexpensive scales that can measure in metrics or English units.
- 6 apples... The ones you like... Here it's good to experiment. Your choice in apple will give you a pie more acidic, fruitier, or whatever else you prefer.
                                           
- A filling made of 2 egg yolks, 1/4 cup of pure cane syrup, and 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

Step by step:

1. Peel the apples and cut them in 1/4 inch thick slices

2. If you have a pressure cooker (mine is a little marvel called a T-FAL Clipso, finally available in the united states (on amazon.com by example), cook your apple under pressure for 5 minutes at low pressure settings. If you don't have a pressure level setting on yours, be careful not to overcook them, you want them tender, not made in a pulp. If you DON'T have a pressure cooker, my first advice would be to buy one. In the worst case, you can try to blanch your apple slices for a few minutes (stop when they are tender), and then let them dry. The cooking time is also different if your apple are ripe or not. It's very easy to end up with a stack of mash apples, so undercook and re-cook if necessary.

3. While the apple slices are cooking, you have the time to prepare your dough (don't buy one already done, it's extremely easy to do and will be much better)... If you have a food processor, the easiest way is to put all the ingredients in it, and start it on a low speed (on a kitchen aid, with the dough hook, setting on 1 for about 5 minutes). You are supposed to add a little water to reach the correct consistency (it's about 1/3 of a cup, but will of course depend of the size of your egg yolk, current humidity, etc.)... that's where the cooking 'feel' is important... For the beginners, you are supposed to end up with a ball of dough turning in your food processor... If the ball doesn't form, it's either too dry (you have more like a powder, with some chunks in it), add a little water, or too wet (you have a kind of goo in your robot - see fourth picture below), add a little flour. Once the ball is formed, stop your food processor. If you don't have a food processor, you'll need to mix everything by hand (it should take around 10 minutes to arrive to the same result)

      

4. Start your oven at 400° Fahrenheit (190° Celsius)... The time necessary for step 5 to 7 should give it time to preheat nicely.

5. Butter your 9 or 10 inch pie pan, than put your ball of dough in it, and flatten it by hand. You are not looking for a perfectly flat result, but just for a crust that is about the same width everywhere in the pie pan, including its sides.

                 

6. Put your apples in the pie pan (just be sure that they are dry before doing that, if you cooked them in water).

7. Prepare the filling by whipping the 2 egg yolks with 1/4 cup of pure cane syrup, and 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract. Once whipped, use a tablespoon to pour it delicately on top of the apples.

                                                                     

8. Put you pie in the oven for 20 minutes... As always, this can take longer or shorter in your oven, as the thermostats of a lot of them reflect very poorly the real thing happening inside... So keep an eye on your pie (and mainly look at the side of your crust: when it's nicely brown, your pie is ready).

You can eat it warm, of course, but this pie supports very well to be cooked a day before and stored in the fridge... And if you don't eat all at once (I have my doubts, but hey...), it support also nicely to be sliced and then frozen in individual bags.