The Ultimate Caramel Apple Pie

I made this pie for Thanksgiving last year to add some variety to our traditional pumpkin pie dessert. I ran across it on Food Network, it sounded good, so I made it! Little did I know it would be the most delicious pie. EVER. The recipe is by Tyler Florence, one of his "ultimate" recipes from the show, Tyler's Ultimate, where he takes traditional recipes and makes them, well, "the ultimate". Unfortunately for him, following the directions posted to the site will inevitably lead to failure, so let me tell you how to make it the right way.



The Ultimate Caramel Apple Pie
For the crust:

3 cups all-purpose flour
Pinch salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold, cut in chunks
2 eggs separated, (yolks for the pastry, whites for the glaze)
5-6 tablespoons ice water, plus more if needed

For the filling:

1 cup sugar, plus 1/4 for sprinkling on top
3 tbsp water
1/4 heavy cream
1/2 cup red wine
1/2 vanilla bean, split
1 lemon, juiced (optional)
4 Granny Smith apples, cored and peeled
4 Gala apples, cored and peeled
1 tbsp flour
2 tsp cinnamon
Couple pats of butterTo make the pastry, combine the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Cut in the chunks of cold butter with a pastry blender, a little at a time, until the dough resembles cornmeal. Add the 2 egg yolks and the ice water, and blend for a second just to pull the dough together and moisten. Be careful not to overwork the dough. Form the dough into a ball, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and let it rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

To make the caramel sauce, put the sugar and water in a pot and bring to a slow boil. Do not stir (I learned this lesson the hard way...the caramel does not form if stirred). You want the caramel to take on a nice golden color, but not to the point of burning. After the caramel has formed, swirl the sauce with a spoon to distribute the color evenly. At this time, take sauce off the heat and add the wine and cream, slowly. Return to the heat and cool until thickened and reduced by half, about 10 minutes. Let cool.

Remove dough from refrigerator, cut in half, and return one half to refrigerator. You will need this to warm up a bit in order to roll out the crust later. At this time, preheat oven to 350.

Take the dough roll out on a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough out to a circle a bit larger than the pie pan you will use (I used a 9" glass pan). When rolled to desired size, place into pie pan and push into place.

To prepare the apples, I recommend using the slicing blade on a food processor. Otherwise, you'll need to use a mandolin or slice by hand. In this case, use lemon juice to keep apple slices from browning. However you slice them, (dry if appropriate) toss them with the flour and cinnamon.

Take the apple slices and layer them carefully into the pie crust. Every few layers or so, spoon a bit of the caramel sauce evenly over the apples. Continue this process until the apples are domed up (they will bake down a bit), and top with a few pats of butter.

Roll out the last bit of dough to fit over the top of the pie. Use the leftover egg whites to brush the edges of the pie to act as a glue between the dough. Lay the top crust over the pie and crimp the edges with the bottom to seal. Cut a few slits in the top of the pie to allow for steam to be released. Place the pie on a baking sheet to catch any drippings, and tent pie with foil.

Bake the pie, tented, for 25 minutes. Mix the remaining sugar and cinnamon for sprinkling. Remove the foil from the pie and brush the top with the egg whites, then sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake for an additional 25 minutes until the pie is nice and golden. Let the pie rest for at least an hour before cutting and serving.

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