Best Homemade Apple Pie

The last week of April, and the household has absorbed the diagnosis the way the Lowcountry absorbs a storm: with preparation, with patience, and with the understanding that the thing that has arrived will change the landscape but will not destroy it. We are a family that has survived an affair, a brain injury, a displacement, and the death of a patriarch. We will survive this. The surviving will be ugly and slow and require more of us than we think we have. But we will do it, because the alternative is not doing it, and Simmons women do not choose the alternative.

James has been spending evenings with Mama after school — sitting at the kitchen table, talking with her, listening to her stories. He has started writing them down, which he told me about on Tuesday with the particular self-consciousness of a young man who is doing something tender and doesn't want it to seem tender. "I'm just taking notes," he said. "For later." I said, "That's a good idea." I did not say: you are doing the most important work of your life, more important than the SAT, more important than college, more important than any essay you will ever write. You are preserving your grandmother's voice. I did not say this because James knows it. He wouldn't be writing if he didn't.

Carrie has thrown herself into preparing for the Japan Society summer program with the intensity that is both her gift and her defense mechanism. When Carrie is scared, she works. When she is sad, she studies. The preparation is both genuine excitement and emotional displacement, and I recognize the strategy because it is mine — the strategy of a woman who cooks when she can't cry, who organizes when she can't control.

I made Mama's pecan pie this week — the dark, bourbon-rich, deeply nutty pie that I associate with Beaufort and with the kitchen that no longer exists in the form that made it. The pie was perfect. The perfection was a small victory in a week of large defeats, and I will take it.

I made Mama’s pecan pie that week, but I’ve been asked to share the apple pie I turned to the following Sunday — the one I make when I need to feel the particular competence of pastry coming together under my hands, when I need something to go right. This is the pie that reminds me what “from scratch” actually means: not just the absence of a box, but the presence of intention. If you are in a week like mine, I recommend it. The smell alone will carry you.

Prep Time: 45 min | Cook Time: 55 min | Total Time: 1 hr 40 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

For the crust:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
6–8 tablespoons ice water
For the filling:
3 lbs mixed baking apples (such as Granny Smith and Honeycrisp), peeled, cored, and sliced 1/4-inch thick
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
For finishing:
1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water (egg wash)
1 tablespoon coarse sugar, for sprinkling

Instructions

Make the crust. Whisk together flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add cold butter and work it in with your fingertips or a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some pea-sized pieces remaining. Drizzle in ice water one tablespoon at a time, mixing gently with a fork, until the dough just comes together. Divide in half, press each half into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
Prepare the filling. Toss sliced apples with both sugars, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, salt, and lemon juice in a large bowl. Let stand 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the apples release some of their juices.
Preheat and roll. Preheat oven to 425°F. On a lightly floured surface, roll one dough disk into a 12-inch circle. Fit it into a 9-inch pie plate, letting the excess hang over the edge. Refrigerate while you roll the second disk to a 12-inch circle.
Fill the pie. Pour the apple filling into the chilled bottom crust, mounding it slightly in the center. Dot the top of the filling with the small pieces of cold butter. Lay the second crust over the top. Trim both crusts to a 1-inch overhang, fold them together under, and crimp the edge decoratively. Cut 5–6 steam vents in the top crust.
Finish and bake. Brush the top crust with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Place the pie on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake at 425°F for 20 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 375°F and bake an additional 35–40 minutes, until the crust is deep golden brown and the filling is bubbling through the vents.
Cool before slicing. Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let it cool at least 2 hours before slicing. This allows the filling to set so slices hold their shape. Serve warm or at room temperature, plain or with vanilla ice cream.

Nutrition (per serving)

Best Homemade Apple Pie — A Small Victory Worth Claiming