I actually genuinely believed I didn't like apple pie for years, as I'd never had one I genuinely enjoyed before I made this recipe! I'm so incredibly excited to be sharing this apple pie recipe with you all finally, after years of trying to find one I was happy with. I found that using cubed apples rather than sliced ones, that have been pre cooked in a spice/sugar mix makes all the difference! Whether you're an apple pie fanatic or a sceptic like I used to be, I hope you give this one a go and see for yourself just how delicious apple pie can be.
Crust:
600g all purpose flour
300g dairy free butter
170g white granulated sugar
0.75 tsp fine table salt*
90g cold water
Apple filling:
1,5-1,6kg Granny Smith apples
70g brown sugar
70g granulated sugar
1tbsp cinnamon
0.5 tbsp vanilla extract
1.5 tbsp vegan butter
1tbsp cornstarch a pinch of salt
To finish off:
1.5tbsp melted vegan butter
1.5tbsp maple syrup 1tbsp granulated sugar
2tsp cinnamon
Method: To make the dough, add the flour, sugar and salt to a bowl and give it a good whisk. Add chunks of dairy free butter and either pinch them with your fingers or use a pastry cutter to slice it into small chunks through the flour. The chunks should be about pea sized and evenly distributed throughout the dry mixture. Then, gradually add your ice cold water while carefully kneading/stirring until it begins to come together. You may need to adjust the amount of water slightly, but you'll know it's done once it comes together as one shaggy dough that you can knead/pat together into two equal sized discs. Do not kneed too much as you want to keep the chunks of butter intact. This will give you that flaky pie crust we're looking for! Wrap each piece in cling film and chill for at least 1 hour in the fridge.
Now, start making your filling. Peel and chop your apples into cubes that are about 1.5-2cm each side, a little larger than a normal dice. Add to a bowl along with the cornstarch, vanilla, cinnamon, sugars and salt and combine well. Set aside for 10-20 minutes as you clean up and ready your pan. Then, add the apples to a pan along with the butter and cook for about 10 minutes until the apple chunks are tender and golden. Place back in a bowl to cool.
As the apples are cooling, roll out one half of the chilled pie dough into a disc somewhere between 0.75-1cm thick - using lots of flour to prevent it from sticking. Transfer it to a pie tin that's about 27.5cm in diameter. You can use a smaller pie tin too but you'll just have a bit more excess dough and filling. Trim away some of the excess dough and fold the rest on top of the edge of the tin. Crimp your crust as you like. Place back in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes. Once the dough and apples have chilled, pour the apple filling mixture into the crust. At this point you want to preheat your oven to 200C.
Roll out the second half of dough into roughly the same diameter as the first. Slice the dough into strips about 3cm thick and layer them in a lattice pattern on top of the pie. You can do this by first placing the strips vertically across the pie and then folding up every second strip to place down a horizontal one. Then fold the strips back down and fold up the vertical strips that were down before to place down the next horizontal strip of dough. Continue this process until all the horizontal dough strips are placed and you should have a lattice.
Once you've added the lattice top, mix maple syrup and butter and brush all over the crust and lattice topping. Sprinkle on a mix of cinnamon and sugar. Tent the crust by making a ring of tin foil that fits outside of the pie tin, folding it over on top so it just covers the crust without touching it. This will prevent the edges from browning faster than the rest of the pie and becoming burnt/overcooked. For tips on how to do this check out the Preppy Kitchens apple pie video here.
Bake the pie at 200C for 30 min, then remove the tenting (if it is looking a little pale) and bake for another 10 minutes or just until golden brown all over. Let the pie cool completely before serving with some vegan ice cream or whipped cream. Enjoy!
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