Blue Duck Tavern Apple Pie
You can't have enough apple pie recipes. Here's a very different one with phenomenal pastry from Laurent Merdy, pastry chef of The Blue Duck Tavern.Makes two pies, serving four people each.
For the filling:
5 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into eight wedges (Chef Merdy’s hint: chill the apples before cooking)
2 ounces butter
2 cinnamon sticks
1/2 cup brown sugar
In a sauté pan, melt butter and add brown sugar and cinnamon sticks. Cook until caramelized, and then add apples. Cook just until they are soft but retain their firmness. Remove the cinnamon sticks.
For the dough:
1 pound cold butter chopped into small pieces
1 pound all-purpose flour
4 ounces cake flour (“This is lighter,” says Merdy)
1 ounce sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream
Chef Merdy says this is not a traditional sweet dough: “It’s not so easy to work with but so good!” In a mixer with a paddle (or with an electric beater), mix butter, flour, sugar and salt until combined. Do not overmix. In a bowl, mix egg yolks and cream together. Add to the flour mixture. Mix just until everything comes together. Chill dough before using.
For the apple sauce:
1 or 2 Granny Smith apples
2 tablespoons brown sugar
Cut apples into halves and remove core, place in a baking dish, sprinkle sugar over and bake in a 200-degree oven for two hours, then cool a little and purée in a blender till smooth.
For the assembly:
2 eggs
2 tablespoons of milk
Brown sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Roll pie dough to 1/8 inch thick and line the two 8-inch pie tins with it. Add applesauce at the bottom, spread it out with a spatula, and then fill up the pie with the cooked apples. Cut out one round piece of pie dough and place on top. Beat together eggs and milk to make an egg wash. Brush on top of pies. Sprinkle a little brown sugar on top and bake for 30 to 35 minutes until golden brown.
This recipe first appeared in the NorthWest Current. Photo Bill Petros/The Current.
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