Apple Slab Pie

Serves 12-16

Begin with crust first – it needs to  refrigerate at least 45 minutes

Crust can be made up to 2 days ahead * see notes

 

Ingredients for Crust:

(makes enough for one 9 – inch double crust pie)

 

9×13 nonstick  jelly roll pan ( 1 inch sides )

2 1/2 cups flour

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

12 Tablespoons chilled butter, cut into 1/4 inch slices

1/2 cup vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces and chilled

1/4 cup cold water

1/4 cup cold vodka

 

Directions for crust:

1.  In a food processor, pulse 1 1/2 cup flour with the salt ( 2 pulses )

2. Add chilled butter and shortening and process (10-15 seconds )

3. Redistribute dough evenly  around processor blade. Add remaining 1 cup flour  and process ( 4-6) quick pulses until dough has been broken up.

4. Empty dough into a large bowl.

5. Combine water and vodka, sprinkle over mixture.

6.  With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is tacky and sticks together.

7. Divide dough in 2  even balls and flatten each into 4 inch disks – wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes.

If dough is too tacky, roll the balls lightly in flour before you flatten, wrap and refrigerate .

 

Apple Ingredients:

3 1/2 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced thin

3 pounds Macintosh apples, peeled, cored, and  sliced thin

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 Tablespoons instant tapioca

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

 

Glaze Ingredients:

3/4-1 cup  reserved apple juice (from filling)

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

1 Tablespoon butter, softened

1 1/4 cups powered sugar

 

Directions for pie filling:

1.  Combine sliced apples, 1 cup sugar and salt in a colander and set over a large bowl.

2.  Let sit, about  30 minutes , until the apples release their juice.

3. Press gently on apples to extract liquid and reserve 3/4 cup juice.

4. Lightly flour counter and roll out one disk of pie dough to measure slightly larger than your 9×13 jelly roll sheet. Fit dough into bottom  and up sides of baking sheet.

5.  Place pan with crust back in fridge or in freezer.

6.  In a large bowl, toss the apples with tapioca and cinnamon.

7.  Roll out second piece of dough. Remove pan from fridge/freezer.

8.  Arrange apples neatly on bottom crust.

9.  With enough flour on your rolling pin, roll dough from the short side of the crust onto the rolling pin and place it on  one of the short edges of the jelly roll pan.  Unroll  crust on top of apples.

10.  Press crusts together and use a paring knife to trim off excess dough.

11.  Use fork to crimp and seal outside edges and pierce top of pie at 2 inch intervals.*

 

Baking and Glaze: *

Preheat oven to 350

1.  Bake in preheated oven until pie is golden brown and juices are bubbling. About 1 hour.

2. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool for one hour.

3.  While pie is cooling, simmer reserved apple juice in a saucepan over medium heat and reduce to 1/4 cup, about 6 minutes.

4.  Stir in lemon juice and butter and let cool slightly.

5.  Whisk in powered sugar and brush glaze over warm pie.

If glaze gets too hard to pour and smooth over crust, reset pan over low heat until it is runny again.

6..  Let pie cool completely ( 1 hour )

7.  Cut into squares or (slabs) and serve.

NOTES:*

OK, at first glance this looks complicated and takes a big chunk of time.  It is worth it!

I would rather make this than a pie.  Cutting that first piece of pie usually ends up a messy process.  This tastes just as good as pie and is more attractive.  And if you are feeding a crowd – it stretches.  Chunk the recipe into smaller time frames and you could have this  for dessert  tonight!

I made the dough the night before. It will last up to 2 days in the fridge.   I also made the pie filling and rolled the dough in the morning and put the whole slab in the fridge for about 4 hours until I was ready to bake it. This step could be another night if you don’t have the time to bake and cool.  It is best served the same day. Next day got great reviews and because it made so much I put half of it in the freezer. I will tell you how that worked when I try it next week.

VODKA in the dough!?  The recipe for the dough/slab came from the Test Kitchen Cookbook. Their explanation:  Vodka is 40 % ethanol and 60% water. You need liquid to hold the dough together and water and flour form Gluten.Too much Gluten and  you have a tough pie crust. Gluten  does not form in alcohol. Even though there is way much more liquid than traditional recipes,( making it easier to handle ) the alcohol burns off and thus a tender crust.

*I used this recipe for dough before and had problems with it because of so much butter.  It oozed  Chilling the dough and putting the prepared slab in the fridge for that 4 hours worked, I had no problems. My suggestion is to refrigerate the dough after you put the slab together.

I adapted the recipe for the filling. The recipe called for Granny Smith and Golden Delicious apples.  I used Granny Smith and Macintosh. Tart and sweet  – a great combination! The tapioca holds the filling together.  I thought it might need more sugar because all the liquid was removed -it did not – tasted great because of the sweetness of the Macintosh.

I also chose to use the vodka crust. The original recipe uses a store bought crust rolled with animal crackers.  I tried the original recipe once and liked this one so much better.

Pan size was different too. The original uses a 18×13 pan. I used a 9×13 gold pan from Williams Sonoma as suggested by my friend Sherrill. It works like a charm.  If you do not have a nonstsick pan, lightly spray yours with cooking spray before you  put down your bottom crust.

Enjoy!