- Welcome back to The Baking Journal.

Today we're making a classic treat that is loved by many, homemade apple pie.

(dynamic music) There is nothing quite like the smell of a homemade apple pie.

And today, I'm gonna take you through all of the steps, from the buttery, flaky crust, even the lovely little decorations on top, as well as the delicious apple pie filling.

Let's get started.

Let's start by making our pie crust.

We need to dice 16 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter into small cubes and get that in the freezer, along with two and a half cups of all-purpose flour.

I'm also putting a half a cup of water in the freezer to get that nice and cold too.

Keeping everything cold is key to a flaky, tender pie crest.

After 15 minutes or so, place the diced butter, flour, and one teaspoon of salt, and one teaspoon of sugar together in the bowl of a food processor.

Pulse a few times to get everything mixed together and the butter looks like the size of small peas.

Then add the half cup of ice water into the bowl all at once and process the dough until it comes together.

This should take 30 to 60 seconds.

(food processor whirring) Dump the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap.

See how I'm using the plastic wrap to bring the dough together?

Do that a few times, and then separate the dough in half, and place each half into a piece of plastic wrap, forming it into a flat disc.

Into the fridge for at least four hours.

And in the meantime, we can make our apple pie filling.

Combine the 1/3 cup of granulated sugar with 1/3 cup of packed brown sugar, a tablespoon of apple pie spice, and a 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

And by the way, if you'd like to make your own apple pie spice from spices you probably already have in your pantry, check out my tips and tricks video on my channel.

Next, add the apples.

I peeled, and cored, and thinly sliced four pounds of apples.

I used both granny smith and pink lady apples.

But, feel free to use your favorite tart, crisp apple.

I like using two different types of apples because I think it adds some complexity to the flavor of the filling.

Add the lemon juice.

And give it a good stir to mix all that deliciousness together.

Then let it sit for a half an hour to draw some of the juice out of the apples.

Now, let's start to cook our apples over a medium low heat, stirring as needed for about 10 minutes until the apples start to soften.

Then add our corn starch slurry mixture, which is just some corn starch mixed with water, to the apples and raise the heat to medium.

Keep cooking and stirring the apples until the juices bubble and thicken.

It should only take about a minute.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in your vanilla extract and lemon zest.

Ooh, doesn't that look scrumptious?

Allow the filling to cool in the refrigerator.

One of the reasons I love this apple filling is that you can make it ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator until you're ready to make your pie.

Our filling is cool, and now we're moving on to preparing the pie.

Take one of the pie disks out of the refrigerator and roll it out to about 13 inches in diameter.

The dough is pretty stiff right now so I'm giving it a few bangs with the rolling pin, and then turning and banging it again three times.

Roll it outward, flip it over, and roll from the center, and continue to roll until the pie dough is slightly larger than your pie pan.

Roll the dough onto the rolling pin and place the dough over the pie pan.

Position the dough and gently press the dough into the pan.

I'm just cutting off some of the excess dough, but leaving enough to carefully fold the excess under the edges of the pie, because I wanna leave enough around the edges to make a pretty fluted crust.

Can you see those little bits of butter?

Oh my gosh, that is beautiful.

And exactly what you wanna see in your pie dough.

Put that back in the refrigerator and we'll prepare the top crust, and decorations.

With the second half of the pie dough, I've rolled it out and I'm cutting seven strips for the lattice top, but leaving a little extra for the decorative roses and leaves.

I wanna show you how to make these pie crust roses two different ways.

I have this little rosette cutter that makes this easy peasy.

You just cut out the dough and roll it together.

Pinch the bottom to hold the rose together and then fan out the rose petals as you like.

If you don't have one of these rosette tools, no worries.

You can take a round cookie cutter and cut out five rounds of dough.

Using your finger, spread a little bit of water on one edge of the circle, and attach each round together, and then roll them up.

Slice it across the middle, and pinch the cut ends as you saw me do earlier.

Shape the petals and then set 'em aside until you're ready to decorate your pie.

We are now ready to make this all come together.

Fill the chilled bottom pie crust with all of that beautiful apple pie filling.

And press the filling down gently to get any air pockets out.

Then, take the pie dough strips and place three vertically across the pie, and the other three horizontally.

Weaving them with the vertical strips.

Using the egg wash as glue, brush some along the lattice top and start to arrange the pie dough rosettes.

I also cut out a few leaves with the extra pie dough, that I'm filling in alongside of the rosettes.

Remove or fold any of the excess dough from the lattice top and crimp the edges of the pie dough together, pushing with one finger on one hand in between two fingers on the other hand.

Make sure the lattice top and decorations have some egg wash on them.

And now let this pie hang out in the freezer for about 30 to 45 minutes.

Have your oven preheated to 425 degrees Fahrenheit, and place the chilled pie on a parchment or Silpat lined baking sheet.

Cover the pie with foil to keep it from browning too quickly and place the pie in the oven for 20 minutes.

Remove the foil and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and bake until the pie is golden brown, and the filling is bubbling.

This will take about 35 minutes.

And there you have it, a delicious and beautiful homemade apple pie.

It smells fabulous in this kitchen.

I can't wait to give it a try.

(dynamic music) Oh my goodness.

The buttery, flaky crust with the delicious apples inside, it really is to die for.

And, because it's me you guys, look at the little flower on top.

It's delicious with or without the decorations, but the decorations really make it special.

I hope you enjoyed watching and learning how to make this apple pie step by step.

For more delicious recipes make sure you subscribe and hit that like button.

Thanks for watching, and I'll see you again soon on another episode of The Baking Journal.

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