Fully Loaded Apple Pie

The first of the fall storms rolled in the other night.  At sunset, the sky was thick with dark, billowy clouds.  The wind was strong from the northwest pressing and bending the aspen trees in the corner of the yard, their leaves chattering in rapid staccato.

The temperature had dropped twenty degrees that night, twenty degrees colder than previous nights.  A steady, drumming rain was still pushed by a persistent wind.  It felt like the season to bake, a time to take the damp chill off the kitchen with a hot oven and a time to permeate the house with the smell of cinnamon and bread baking.

The first apple pie of the season would be memorable, full loaded.  We would gather the best baking apples we could find and make a mound of pie. We would use plenty of butter and cinnamon plus sour cream and a generous handful of walnuts.  We would need some ruby red cranberries.  There wouldn’t be fresh ones in the stores yet but that was okay; we would use dried ones and the steam in the pie would make them plump and tender.  We would share our pie with friends, served steaming hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream melting alongside and drizzled with a cream syrup.  It would be a special pie.

And here is the recipe:

This recipe calls for sour cream, walnuts, and cranberries—hence it is fully loaded.  But the secret of a great apple pie is the apples.  Use the best you can find.  We prefer tart apples for the recipe.

Since you are baking a high-mounded, deep dish pie, you will need about 1 1/2 to two times a normal double crust recipe. You will also need a nine-inch, deep-dish pie pan for this recipe.  A dark colored pie pan will absorb heat and help bake the crust so that it does not become soggy.

Ingredients

For the crust:

9-inch double crust
For the filling:
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger
9 to 10 cups apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1/2 cup dried or 1 cup frozen, or fresh cranberries
2/3 cup walnut pieces
4 tablespoons butter

For the topping:

1 large egg white
1 tablespoon water
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons granulated sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

1. Prepare and press the pie crust into a deep-dish pie pan setting aside the dough for the top crust. Trim the crust. Do not bake the crust.

2. In a large bowl, mix the sugar, flour, sour cream, lemon juice, and spices together into a smooth paste. Add the apples, walnuts, and cranberries and mix until coated with the sour cream mixture. Scrape the apple mixture into the unbaked pie shell.  Cut the butter into chunks and spread on top of the filling.

3. Roll out the top crust. Brush the top edge of the bottom crust around the rim with water to help the two crusts seal. Place the top crust over the pie. Trim the crust and seal the two crusts with the tines of a fork.

4. Mix the egg white, water and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon together. Brush the mixture over the top of the pie. Mix the cinnamon  with the granulated sugar and sprinkle over the top of the pie.

5. Cover the edges of the pie with aluminum foil to keep it from burning or use a pie crust shield. Bake for 25 minutes and then remove the foil. Bake for another 35 to 45 minutes or until the pie is bubbly and the crust is golden.