THE Apple Pie

I’m not sure why I was looking, but at the beginning of November, I came across this recipe by Kathy Patalsky (vegan cooking blogger, also stellar food photographer) :

http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2011/01/vegan-caramel-apple-pie-recipe.html

My mom usually makes every component of our Thanksgiving dinner and makes a great vegan apple pie. I love baking vegan treats, and I wanted to make up for the fact that two years prior I had attempted to make vegan fried fruit pies, which came apart when I tried to fry them – also my mom was not pleased about the oil spattering everywhere. This recipe looked like a good way to start a new tradition.

I’ll put it out there: I have an aversion to mixers and food processors and the like. I would prefer to literally handle my dishes from start to finish, especially when making dough or batter (though I like whipping up smoothies in our blender). The chef was always espousing the values of using the KitchenAid, but I think that’s just because he’s used to working in a restaurant kitchen where everything has to move at double speed. I more enjoy kneading the dough myself.

So the chef was nice enough to get me a pastry dough cutter, and my mom provided me with instructions on how to mix the dough by hand. I used cold Bob’s Mill all-purpose white flour, 2 cut-up and well-chilled sticks of Earth Balance, and salt.

Added extremely cold water, a little bit at a time as needed to get the dough to come together –

I separated the dough into two even blobs, wrapped them in plastic wrap and put them in the fridge overnight.

Thanksgiving morning, I got the chef to cut me up some apples – very thin!

Then we whipped up the filling seasonings and the accompanying caramel sauce. We made the addition Calvados to the filling mixture 😉 I think at this point in the recipe, when I make this again, I would cook the apples a bit in the skillet to soften them up as well.

Rolled out the dough…

I didn’t roll the dough out enough =(

So the chef re-rolled it for me. He also arranged the apples into the pie.

He cut the lattice strips and I attempted to arrange them. I started weaving them and then kinda gave up. But it doesn’t look too bad!

Baked it for 15 mins at 425° and then about 25 mins at 350°.  Some of the filling dribbled out while it was in the oven (you can see it at the bottom of the picture here), but it still came out wonderfully! I can’t wait to make it again next year!