I baked my first apple pie from scratch this holiday season. Paul had requested several times and I figured now was the perfect time to do this for him. I found a great recipe at Martha Stewart with delicious lemon zest, spices, and brown sugar. It turned out awesome and a definite success. Some of the comments were, “you should open a bakery” and “yum this tastes really gourmet”. I’m all “wow, thank you Martha!”. I wouldn’t modify anything other than maybe the amount of apples. I found 5 pounds of apple to be a bit too much stuffing. I would say 3 to 4 pounds is plenty. Happy Baking!

Who else but my mom helping me with the dough.

Ingredients
Pate Brisee
5 pounds Granny Smith Apples
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon heavy cream
Fine sanding sugar, for sprinkling

This is where the art comes in…it’s all about the craft ladies.

Directions
1. On a lightly floured work surface, roll 1 disk of dough to 1/8 inch thick. Fit into a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate. Trim edges flush with rim. Refrigerate 1 hour.
2. Roll remaining disk of dough to 1/8 inch thick. Using a 1 3/4-inch fluted round cutter, cut out about 70 rounds, rerolling scraps if necessary. Place rounds on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Peel and core apples. Thinly slice half the apples, and cut remaining apples into 1-inch pieces.
4. Toss together apples, lemon zest and juice, sugars, flour, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large bowl. Place filling in piecrust, mounding it in the center. Dot with butter. To make egg wash, whisk together egg yolk and cream in a small bowl. Lightly brush edge of piecrust with egg wash. Arrange dough rounds over filling, working in a spiral from the outside in to the center, overlapping them slightly. Lightly brush top of each round with egg wash as you work to help them adhere to one another. Once the filling has been covered with rounds, lightly brush entire top of pie with egg wash. Sprinkle top with sanding sugar. Refrigerate pie for 1 hour.
5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, with racks in the middle and lower positions. Place a foil lined baking sheet on lower rack to catch any juices. Place pie on middle rack and bake until crust begins to turn golden brown, about 25 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375, and bake until crust is golden brown and juices are bubbling, about 1 hour and 10 minutes more. Tent with foil if crust browns too quickly. Let cool completely on a wire rack.