You will love this easy Mile High Apple Pie! It combines a brown sugar lemon apple filling with a flakey, buttery, and generously sugared crust for the perfect apple pie!
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 the Filling:
Freeze two rimmed baking sheets.
Peel, core and quarter apples. Slice about ¼ inch thick either by hand or with a mandolin. The mandolin will speed up the process and also make more consistent slices.
Combine apples lemon juice, lemon zest, cinnamon, sugars, cornstarch and butter in a large pot.
Simmer over low heat until the apples begin to release their juices. Increase heat to medium and cook until filling has thickened and apples are crisp-tender. Some will look translucent and other not. You don’t want to overcook your filling at this stage. It still has to cook again!
Pour filling between two frozen baking sheets lined with parchment paper. The filling should be in a single layer. Cover with plastic wrap and poke a few ventilation holes. Refrigerate until cold. This rapidly cools the filling and stops the cooking process.
This can be done up to a week in advance.
Mile High Apple Pie Assembly:
Preheat your oven to 425℉.
Roll out your pie crusts on a lightly floured surface into two circles that are roughly 2 inches larger in diameter than your pie dish, to a little more than ⅛th of an inch thick. Line an ungreased pie dish with one of the crusts, allowing the excess to hang over the edges. Place on sheet pan, cover and chill.
Place top crust on parchment lined sheet pan, cover with plastic wrap and chill until ready to use.
Pour cooled apple filling into the pastry lined pie dish, mounding the apples in the center. Place the top crust over the filling; cut vent holes on top (you can also make cute cutouts before placing the top crust over the filling.); trim all but ½ inch excess dough from around the edges; press the top and bottom crust together, fold under and create a decorative edge. You can flute the edges or press with a fork, or even decorate with cutouts from your scraps.
Brush the top with heavy cream and generously sprinkle with granulated sugar.
Bake in preheated oven 15 minutes; lower the temperature to 350℉ and bake until the filling is bubbling and the crust is brown, which will be about 45-60 minutes longer.
Video
Notes
Flavor Tips - I choose crisp, tender apples that hold up to baking such as honeycrisps, Braeburn, Jonagold, Cripps Pink, gala, granny smith and Pink Ladies and balance their sweetness with lemon juice. Lemon adds a nice floral dimension and the cinnamon just makes it a party. If you use sweeter apples, omit some of the brown sugar.Technique - I precook the apple pie filling so that the filling and the crust are both perfectly baked and there is no gap between the apple filling and the top crust.Storage - Store baked Mile High Apple pie at room temperature for 3 days or refrigerated for 1 week. It can also be frozen for up to 2 months. Wrap the cooled pie in plastic wrap before storing.