This Apple Butterscotch Pie is absolute heaven! Lightly spiced apples baked inside a flakey all-butter pie crust with a homemade brown sugar butterscotch sauce!
Whisk together pastry flour, salt and sugar. Using your stand mixer, cut in the butter until you have slightly larger than pea sized pieces.
Slowly begin to add your ice water a tablespoon at a time. At this point be very careful with the amount of water that you add because it only needs a few teaspoons more.
When your dough is shaggy, which means it looks like shards or strands of pastry, and there is still some loose flour, turn out your dough from the mixer and work the dough together by gathering it and pressing away from you with the heal of your hand. Do this JUST until it comes together. If it is crumbling, then dip your hand in a little ice water and pat it on the pastry dough. Seriously, that’s it. Remember the gluten!
Divide the dough in half and press each half into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours or overnight. If you chill your dough overnight, you will need to let it rest a bit before rolling or it will be too cold and it will crack.
Roll out half the pie dough and line a 9 or 10 inch deep-dish pie dish; refrigerate. Roll out the second half of the pie dough for the top crust, place on a baking sheet and refrigerate.
Prepare Filling:
In a large bowl mix together the apples, lemon juice, cardamom, cinnamon, salt, brown sugar and cornstarch.
Assemble and Bake:
Pour half of the filling into the pie dish and then pour approximately 1 ½ cups butterscotch sauce on top. Mound the remaining apple filling on top, creating a mound in the center. Pour the remaining butterscotch sauce on top.
Cover the pie with your second crust and decoratively crimp the edges. Try to get as good a seal as you can so the butterscotch sauce stays inside the pie! Refrigerate the pie on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 20 minutes.
Remove pie from the refrigerator and cut some vent holes near the top. Lightly brush the pastry with heavy cream, making sure it doesn’t pool anywhere because this will make your crust soggy, and then sprinkle generously with sanding sugar.
Bake 20 minutes at 425℉, then lower the oven temperature to 350℉ and continue baking for 1 hour or until the filling is soft and bubbly and the crust is brown. You can test the filling by inserting a knife into one of the vent holes. There should be no resistance from the apples! Let cool before cutting or serving. I know, the agony!
Notes
Let’s get into it like a PROFESSIONAL CHEF:
Presentation - Bonus points for serving this pie with a mound of vanilla bean ice cream or a generous spoonful of vanilla bean anglaise. You could even drizzle some extra butterscotch sauce on top–it’s just delicious! (FYI: A double batch of this butterscotch sauce recipe would be enough for this pie with about 1 cup left over for drizzling on top!)I also love the lattice top I baked on my blueberry pie, so I made you a lattice top tutorial video! Let your pie cool before cutting or serving.Flavor Tips - If a dessert is so sweet that you can only eat two bites, then it is too damn sweet. With that in mind I chose moderately tart apples (Braeburn, pink lady, Cortland, Macoun, and Ginger Gold), tossed them in granulated and brown sugar, and balanced the sweetness with lemon juice. Lemon adds a nice floral dimension and the cardamom just makes it a party. Technique - Dicing the apples into smaller pieces allows the filling to cook at the same rate as the crust, so you don’t have to pre-cook your filling. The pie crust can be made using any of the 5 ways in my video tutorials! I like to leave my filling melding for at least 30 minutes to draw out some of the moisture from the apples.Helpful Tools - The stand mixer is your best friend for this recipe, but I promise you could also make it by hand with a pastry blender! I find it very helpful to have all my ingredients and tools cooled for making pie crust. I also generously flour my surface when rolling out my crust!Variations - You could make this in a Vodka Pie Crust or even a store-bought {tear} crust. You could add some different warming spices based on your preferences! Homemade Apple Pie Spice Mix would be lovely! If you use sweeter apples, omit the extra brown sugar.Storage - You can make the filling the night before and refrigerate in the bowl for assembly the next day if you wish. Store baked apple pie in a covered dish at room temperature or tightly wrapped in the refrigerator or freezer. Baked apple pie will keep for 3 days at room temperature, 10 days in the refrigerator or up to 3 months tightly wrapped in the freezer.