Apple Pie with Salted Caramel Sauce

    It's starting to get cooler around here and that means it's officially pie season, a.k.a. prime Dean Winchester season! I was flipping through a Supernatural cookbook and found this positively scrumptious-looking recipe for apple pie. The original recipe called for store-bought pie crusts, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it; Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry raised me better than that, so I scrounged up a dough recipe from Ye Olde Internete instead.

    Now, I haven't baked a pie in a long time and I've never made my own dough or done a lattice, so I'm going to save you some heartache by sharing what I learned from doing this. Number one is to keep your dough as cold as possible and avoid working it as much as possible to keep the butter from melting and make it easier to deal with. I did my best, but the lattice took me way longer to figure out than I anticipated and everything was looking a little squishy by the time I finished. 

    The next time I make this - and I don't know why I didn't think of doing this before because I literally just watched someone do it on the Bakeoff - I would leave the bottom part of the pie in the fridge to stay cool, construct the lattice on a piece of parchment paper, then add the fruit to the pan and just slap the pre-built lattice on top. That minimizes the amount of time it's just sitting out ruining all your lovely flaky pastry. Similarly, make sure your apples are totally cooled down before throwing them in the pie. You would think that would be obvious, but you would say the same thing about making sure your oven is on the right temperature, which I also managed to not do. In my defense, it was a very trying day. Despite the challenges, this was a huge hit and it was gone by the next day. I guess that gives me an excuse to make another to test out the above revisions!

Ingredients:

For the pie crust

• 2 1/2 cups flour, plus more to dust
• 1/2 TBSP sugar
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 lb cold unsalted butter (2 sticks), diced into 1/4" cubes
• 7-8 TBSP ice water

For the pie filling

• 2 TBSP butter
• 5 lbs assorted apples (I used a 3:1 mix of Honeycrisp and Granny Smith), peeled, cored, and sliced 1/4" thick
• 1/2 cup plus 1 TBSP sugar, divided 
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 TBSP cornstarch
• 3 TBSP apple cider
• 1 TBSP lemon juice
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 TBSP milk

For the salted caramel sauce

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup loosely packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt (or to taste)
• 2 TBSP water (optional)

Directions:

Make the pie crust:

1.  Place flour, sugar, and salt into a bowl and whisk to combine. Add diced cold butter and lightly toss to coat, then use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour until the mixture looks coarse and crumbly, with pea-sized butter crumbles. 
2. Add the water 1 TBSP at a time and stir with a firm spatula after each addition. Stop adding water when you see large clumps forming. Press a piece of dough between your fingertips; if it doesn't stick together, add water a teaspoon at a time until it does. Don't add too much water or overmix as this will make the dough sticky and difficult to roll out.
3. Transfer dough to a clean work surface and gather into a ball. It shouldn't be smooth, so don't knead the dough. Divide in half and flatten to form 2 disks. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. 

 Make the pie:

1.  Preheat the oven to 375 F. 
2.  Melt the butter over medium heat in a heavy saute pan or Dutch oven. Add apples, 1/2 cup of the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg and saute for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the apples start to soften. Sprinkle the cornstarch over the mixture, stir, and add the apple cider. Saute for another 5 minutes until the apples are soft, but not mushy. Remove from the heat and allow to cool, then stir in lemon juice. 
3. Roll out one of the chilled dough disks to fit a 9-inch pie pan and transfer it to the pan, making sure the dough lays flat to the bottom and sides. Return the pan to the fridge while making the top crust. To make a lattice for the top, roll out the second disk slightly larger than first and cut into 12 strips a little under an inch wide. Transfer the fruit mixture to the pie pan. Working quickly, place 6 of the strips vertically on top of the fruit mixture. Fold every other strip back almost all the way back to the edge of the pie, then place a strip horizontally across them. Replace the 3 strips that were folded back, then fold the other 3 strips back almost to the horizontal strip you just placed and lay another strip across them. Repeat 3 more times until the pie is covered, then trim any excess dough and crimp the edges. 
4. Combine the egg and milk in a small bowl. Brush the top crust with the mixture, then sprinkle with the remaining 1 TBSP of sugar. 
5. Bake for about 40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Set aside to cool while you make the caramel sauce.  

Make the salted caramel sauce:

1. In a medium saucepan, combine butter, cream, and sugar. Heat over medium-high until the sugar is melted, then reduce the heat to a simmer. 
2. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. You want the caramel to be golden brown, but not burned, so keep a close eye on it as the colors starts to change. 
3. Remove the caramel from the heat and add salt to taste. The sauce will thicken as it cools; if a thinner consistency is preferred, add 1 or 2 TBSP of water to thin it out. Cool slightly, then drizzle on top of pie before serving.

Sources: "Scarecrow Apple Pie" and Salted Caramel Sauce from "Cu's Best Banana Pancakes", Supernatural: The Official Cookbook. Pie dough recipe from Natasha's Kitchen.