This is my favorite apple pie of all time   Potato starch keeps the filling inside the pie where it belongs, but without the chalky, pasty texture often caused by using flour. The juices are thick and clear, but without that goopy, sticky ‘supermarket’ feel.

Mile-High Apple Pie

Pie dough for a 10” double-crust pie
8 large Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/8” slices
Juice of 1/2 lemon
3 Tbs potato starch
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
4 Tbs cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4” pieces
Topping:
1/2 Tbs milk
1 Tbs granulated sugar
 
Preheat oven to 425°F and position rack in lower middle of oven with a baking stone on it. Toss the apple slices with the lemon juice and set aside. Combine the potato starch, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small bowl; set aside.

Roll out half of pie dough into a 12” round; fit into a 10” pie plate. Pile half the apple slices evenly in the shell and sprinkle with half of the sugar mixture. Dot with half the butter pieces. Repeat with remaining apples, sugar mixture and butter. Roll remaining half of dough into a 12” round and place carefully over apples. Crimp and seal the edges of the pie; cut steam vents into the top. Brust top crust with milk and sprinkle with 1 T. of sugar.

Put pie in oven on top of baking stone and immediately lower the heat to 350°F. Bake for 60 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Cover edges for last 20-30 minutes of baking time if necessary to prevent over-browning. Cool on wire rack for two hours before serving.
 
Servings: 8-10
Yield: (1) 10-inch pie

Tiffany - your pie looks fantastic!  Btw, I love to sprinkle sugar on my top crust!

Thank you, Patrincia ... it’s on the menu for Thanksgiving too! 

That is one delicious looking pie, Tiffany. 

that looks to die for!!!

does one find potato starch at the regular ol grocery store?

Looks lovely, Tiffany!  I’ve not heard of using potato starch, interesting concept.  I use only 1/2 cup sugar in my pie, and I don’t ever use any thickener.  I never have a runny pie either, so I do think the less sugar you use, the less juice you have to contend with. 

MrsM

Just out of curiosity, what are some of your favorite apple varieties to use in pies?

lilthorner - 20 November 2007 04:05 PM

that looks to die for!!!

does one find potato starch at the regular ol grocery store?

I can find it right at my local Publix ... I think most grocery stores do carry it.

Patrincia - 20 November 2007 11:21 PM

Just out of curiosity, what are some of your favorite apple varieties to use in pies?

I like all Golden Delicious or sometimes a mixture of Granny Smith and Golden Delicious.  Beyond that, I haven’t found so much of a pronounced difference in pie that it’s worth seeking out other varieties ... although that doesn’t hold true for me when it comes to things like making apple butter or applesauce.

My favorite eating apple is mutsu, but they are hard to find at a store—you usually have to go to a farm or orchard stand.  I don’t think they are the best for pies however.  I usually do a blend of several apple varieties.

I like to mix several cooking apple varieties for pies too.  I don’t think I’ve ever has a Mutsu apple - I’m not even sure I’ve ever heard of it.  My favorite eating apple is a Honey Crisp.

I purchased some Haralson apples at a farm stand a few years ago. Boy, they made a great pie. I sliced up a bunch and froze them, too, and they froze really well. They’re not easy to find, though.

This year’s Thanksgiving apple pie was made with Fuji apples—a bit on the underripe side (still some green on the skins). It was pretty good. They held their shape well and didn’t fall apart into mush. The flavor was just a bit on the sweet and bland side, but still good.

I tend to go for tangy, tart and flavorful in apples. Anyone else have some recommendations?

Oh, about potato starch—I also love it for pie fillings. In our area, many markets sell “Bob’s Red Mill” specialty flours, including potato starch. They have a whole line of unusual flours and starches. They’re usually in the baking aisle.

Potato starch was one of my “happy finds” several years ago when I was contemplating the whole juice in fruit pies problem.  I know Rose advocates mascerating the fruit and then thickening the juices ... but this, to my mind at least, changes the texture of the fruit and leaves it a bit rubbery (I am a big texture freak), which I don’t care for.  Potato starch has been the solution I’ve liked best to date.

I decided to try the Cooks’ Illustrated / America’s Test Kitchen version of a deep-dish apple pie. It calls for 5 whole pounds of apples (before peeling, coring and slicing)—lots of apples! I wish I had taken a picture of the mountain of raw apple slices—it looked like enough for two or three pies. You gently pre-cook them on the stovetop in a Dutch oven or you would never be able to get them all into the pie.

I made one major modification to their recipe—they call for cooling the cooked apples, draining them and discarding the juice (gasp! such waste!). I decided to use Rose’s trick of concentrating the juice instead. I spooned the slices out of the Dutch oven with a slotted spoon and spread them out on a rimmed baking pan to cool, and then reduced the juice in a greased 4-cup measure in the microwave while the apples were cooling. It worked just great! The juice reduced to a lovely thick syrup, I poured it over the apples and stirred a bit—and the juice set up into jelly! (There must have been enough pectin from the apples to set it up.) Of course, it dissolved again as the pie cooked, and set again as it cooled. Delicious!

I was amazed that their recipe only called for 1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon to flavor all those apples, so I increased it to a scant 1/4 teaspoon. It was actually a bit on the spicy side—I could have stayed with the original amount. The amount of sugar in the recipe was just right, too. I reduced the lemon zest a bit because I only like a subtle hint of it in pies. That worked fine for my taste.

For apples, I used a combination of Fuji, Cripps’ Pink and a few Braeburns that needed to be used up.

I used a deep-dish pie pan (holds about 6 cups of filling, maybe a little more) and a two-crust recipe of Rose’s Whole Wheat Cream Cheese Pastry. Yum!

If you want to try the filling recipe, it is at   http://www.cooksillustrated.com/article.asp?articleid=811  (but it’s only available to paying members). You can also find it in the September/October 2005 issue of Cook’s Illustrated magazine, or in the book “Cooking at Home with America’s Test Kitchen.” (It was part of Season Six of America’s Test Kitchen.) My library has all the ATK books, maybe yours does too!

I also use the Cook’s Illustrated / America’s Test Kitchen deep dish apple pie recipe.  They really ticked me off with that, too… they touted the be all/end all apple pie recipe one year, and then totally changed it the next!  For pie crusts, I like Julia Child’s from The Way to Cook (half shortening, half butter, made in a food processor).  I guess I need to branch out into Rose’s other “Bibles.”