The Modern Baker: Maid's Big Apple Pie. Win a Free Cookbook

I first met Maida Heatter – I know many of you must have her wonderful baking books – when I went to Miami to judge a baking competition in the early nineties.  Maida arrived at the hotel where the event was taking place a little early and we started chatting about baking and recipes, and cookbooks, and haven’t stopped since.  Over the years Maida has become a dear friend and a valued mentor – the precise detail in her recipes has been an example for me to emulate and the taste and appearance of her cakes, cookies, pastries, and desserts are the finest you’ll find anywhere. 

Once when visiting Maida in Miami Beach we fell to talking about pies, “They’re the hardest thing of any to get right, don’t you think so?”  Maida asked me.  True perfectionist that she is, Maida meant that to get the pastry dough to a golden flakiness and the filling to just the right stage between runny and set required a lot of work.  She then told me that a young friend had just asked her to teach her to make an apple pie, and that she had thought about it for a while and decided to make a big free-standing pastry that partially enclosed a cinnamon and brown sugar-scented cooked apple filling.  She had filled in the open area at the top of the pie with overlapping apple slices and glazed them with apricot preserves after the pie had cooled.  We really didn’t discuss any particulars of the recipe, but it sounded intriguing, so I stored it the back on my mind in the “that’s a great idea I have to try some day” section, and there it stayed.

A few years later, when I used to appear as a substitute host on Sara Moulton’s popular Food Network show, Cooking Live, once a week, the producer asked me if we could plan a show on apples.  She asked me to come up with something original, and that’s how my recipe for Maida’s Big Apple Pie was born.  I worked out a simplified version, without the final finish of apple slices and glaze.  I was excited about it because Maida watched the show faithfully whenever I was on and would always leave me a phone message as soon as the show ended.  So a few months later I was able to surprise her with her apple pie recipe, and it’s one I’ve made often since.  It’s great for a crowd – in fact it’s perfect for Thanksgiving if you have a lot of people over.  Best of all, it’s baked on a big round pizza pan or cookie sheet, so you don’t need any special equipment.

Makes one 12-inch pie, about 16 servings

RICH PASTRY DOUGH
3 cups all-purpose flour (spoon flour into dry-measure cup and level off)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
20 tablespoons (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold, cut into 20 pieces
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks

APPLE FILLING
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 1/2 pounds Granny Smith or other tart apples, peeled, halved, cored, and each half cut into 6 wedges
2 1/2 pounds Golden Delicious apples, peeled, halved, cored, and each half cut into 6 wedges
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Egg wash:  1 large egg well beaten with a pinch of salt

Sugar for sprinkling the pie before baking

One round pizza pan, 12 to 14 inches in diameter, buttered

1. For the pastry, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade.  Add the butter and pulse about 20 times to mix the butter in finely.  Add the eggs and yolks and pulse until the dough just begins to form a ball, but no longer.  Invert the dough to a floured surface and carefully remove the blade.  Use your hands to press the dough into a disk about 1/2-inch thick.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for at least an hour or up to 2 days.

1. For the filling, melt the butter in a large pan with a cover.  Add apples and sprinkle with the sugars and cinnamon.  Cover pan and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, until apples have exuded juices.  Uncover and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until apples are tender.  About a third will have disintegrated, and the rest of the apple slices should remain intact.  Cool the filling.  May be made several days in advance and stored, covered, in the refrigerator.

1. To form the pie, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and set a rack in the lowest level.  Roll dough to about a 16-inch diameter and center on pan.  Spoon filling into center of disk of dough and fold overhanging dough in toward center of pie.  Brush the top of the folded-over dough with the egg wash and sprinkle with the sugar. 

1. Bake the pie about 40 minutes, until the dough is a golden color and the filling is bubbling.  Cool on a rack.

What types of pies will you be baking for Thanksgiving? Gather will draw one respondent to win a copy of Modern Baker. Comments must be posted by Sunday, November 23^rd.

Learn more time-saving techniques for bread, tarts, pies, cakes, and cookies from The Modern Baker. Visit Food.gather.com for more.