The Apple Pie of My Eye (Cinnamon Bun Apple Pie)
Our Thanksgiving dinner was a little family affair as I suspect most people’s celebrations were. We modified our dinner, kept it small, moved it earlier in the day so we could eat outside, roasted turkey parts instead of the entire bird (wow, cut the cooking time a ton!), and settled for fewer side dishes.
But when it came to dessert…there was no compromise on PIE.
We made three pies…for six people. Yep, one pie for every two persons.
Sounds about right.
Jamie worked on a Purple Sweet Potato Pie (post coming soon) from ZoeBakes. A pie she tried last year and was determined to improve upon this year. A graham cracker crust that replaced the butter-flour crust proved to be a delicious tweak.
Sadly pumpkin pie was outvoted by Pecan Pie (I am shocked, Jordan generally votes with me for pumpkin, switched camps-what an ingrate). The Pecan Pie from Park Chow has been my go-to recipe for years. Initially disappointed we didn’t have pumpkin pie, one bite of that pecan pie and all thoughts of pumpkin vanished.
The final pie, drum roll please APPLE PIE. The hubster’s favorite pie and admittedly mine too (in the fruit category at least). King Arthur Baking posted a Cinnamon Bun Apple Pie that I immediately put on my gotta make Bucket List. WHAT A GENIUS RIFF.
The top dough for the pie is rolled out in a rectangle, buttered and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. The dough is then rolled up like a carpet and chilled (ok, frozen), and cut into spirals. The spirals are placed side by side and once again rolled to flatten and smoosh the spirals together. Voila’ pinwheel top pie crust-too CUTE. Not only cute but the cinnamon sugar added a cinnamon bun element to the pie….it was DELISH. It wasn’t that much more work for the huge WOW factor return.
I used my own apple pie recipe and Dorie Greenspan’s pie crust, which worked perfectly. Dorie’s piecrust makes quite a bit of dough so I was able to roll it out to 1/8 inch thick and then trim it down to a 9×13 rectangle. Feel free to use your own favorite apple pie recipe.
So, sign up for desserts next holiday and try this pie! Auntie “Always brings finger jello” will be unduly impressed.
The Process
I rolled the crust out, on parchment paper, to 1/8-inch thickness and then using a pizza cutter, trimmed it to a 9 x 13 rectangle. Use an offset spatula (easy peasy) to spread the softened butter on the dough. The cinnamon sugar should cover the dough completely (oops) except for 1/4-inch on one side of the short end, preferably the short side furthest from you.
Use the parchment paper to help roll the dough into a log. Try to keep it tight when rolling. Pinch the seam on the log closed and wrap the log in the parchment. I have PVC pipe that I slide the log into before chilling to keep the log completely round. You could use a paper towel roll. Cut one line entirely down the tube so you can then wrap the roll around the dough log. Place in freezer, seam side down. Chill until firm, a minimum of 30 minutes.
Remove log from freezer and cut into 1/4-inch slices. Rotate the log as you cut to prevent a flat edge. If the log gets too soft, throw it back in the freezer for a couple of minutes. Arrange the spirals touching next to each other and as close as you can get to a circle shape. Roll the dough to 1/8-inch thickness using even pressure to keep the spirals as round as possible. You should end up with a circle about 14 inches in diameter. Good luck may the pie force be with you. Just kidding, it’s really not that bad.
Roll the dough loosely around your rolling pin. Center over far edge of pie and unroll towards you, over the apples.
Crimp the edges and you are ready to bake. If the edges brown too quickly, cover with foil. My spirals were not tight enough so you will see where a couple of them collapsed. NBD-it’s called the rustic look.
Ta-da, Cinnamon Bun Apple Pie, ready for the center of the dessert table, like a BOSS.
Mom’s Apple Pie
Ingredients
My current favorite pie crust recipe is from Dorie Greenspan. It makes a generous amount of dough so you will have excess that you can use for hand pies or small pie.
- Pastry for 9 inch Two-Crust Pie
- 3/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup granulated sugar + 1/4 c dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour*
- 1/2 teaspoon ground mace
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Dash of salt
- 6 cups thinly sliced pared tart apples about 6 medium
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon KA Boiled Cider (secret apple booster) optional
Instructions
- Prepare pie crust. Place in fridge to chill while making filling.
- Heat oven to 425 degrees.
- Mix sugar, flour, mace, cinnamon and salt.
- Stir in apples. Turn into pastry-lined pie plate; dot with butter.
- Cover with top crust that has slits cut in it; seal and flute.
- Make a 3 inch aluminum foil ring. Set aside to use if crust browns too much
- Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Lower temperature to 375 degrees, bake until crust is golden brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust, 40 to 50 minutes. Cover edge with ring if necessary.
Growing up there was the one apple to rule them all, the Red Delicious (ok, so I grew up in the city). I didn’t know other varieties existed, when Golden Delicious apples started showing up, that was a major deal. Now the varieties are endless, Jonagold, Empire, Mutsu, Pink Lady, the list keeps growing. When I make an apple pie I use at least 3 different varieties, I look for a balance of tart and sweet, apples that hold their shape and some that breakdown as the pie bakes. Apparently, I just don’t micromanage my kids I seem to be an apple pie micromanager as well…sigh.