Modern Baker: Maida's Big Apple Pie

 

      The eleventh recipe I made from the Sweet Tarts & Pies section (the 69th recipe overall in this book) of The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri, was the one for Maida's Big Apple Pie, on page 182.  (We are not publishing recipes from the book, so if you like what you see, buy the book and bake along with or without us). 

      This was a really big pie, so I made a half-size version, not that we would not love that much apple pie, but we really didn't need to be eating that big of a pie with just two people here, even over the course of several days, half-size was plenty big. 

     The ingredient list for the crust:  all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, unsalted butter, and eggs.  (I used one-half of the filling recipe and it fit perfectly.)  The ingredient list for the filling:  butter, apples, sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon.  There was also sugar needed for sprinkling on the top of it all. 

       The tart was done baking in 40 minutes.  When I cooked the apples I had a lot of liquid so I chose not to add all of that as it would make the dough soggy and run out of the free-form crust...all apples have differing water content when you cook them down, so I just went with my instincts about the amount of moisture I thought it needed and that worked well.
      The taste is excellent, the nice crunchy flaky crust with the cinnamon-sugar apples is one of our favorite combinations.  It was easy to make the free-form crust and fill it with the apples.  Definitely a repeat, the question is:  How soon should I wait until I make another? 

      Here are posts from others who made it:  Phyl and Abby and Renee and Mia.  

      If you would like to bake along or be a part of the Modern Baker group, you will find all that, plus a tab to link to the blogs posting the Breads, with the blogroll here.