I Stand Victorious

I cemented my position at the top of the town's pie-making hierarchy this past weekend at the Takoma Park Farmer's Market Apple Pie Making Contest. My Apple Pie with Cinnamon Roll Top Crust won "Best Pie Ever"! The winnings came complete with $15 worth of farmer's market tokens and a first place blue ribbon. Truth be told, I was having a bit of a bad pie day. My cinnamon rolls for the top crust didn't rise. I had frozen the extras from the Labor Day Block Party trial run to use on the pie contest pie and they never came back to life once thawed. Apparently, that didn't matter. As one of my neighbors (who came and supported me in the contest - thanks Cliff!) astutely pointed out, having a denser cinnamon roll for the crust is not necessarily a bad thing. Crusts are supposed to be dense. The judges agreed. I broke up the assembly of this pie over two days, by the way. I already had the cinnamon rolls, as I mentioned, and I made the bottom crust and sliced the apples the day before the contest. On contest day, I put everything together and did all the cooking and icing. If you make the pie in one day, it pretty much takes all day. Consider yourself warned. And pay attention - the bottom crust instructions posted here are one of the only times I'm going to give away how I make my go-to crust for pretty much every pie.

Apple Pie with Cinnamon Roll Top Crust

cinnamon roll crust ingredients:
1/4 c. melted unsalted butter
1 c. hot water
1/4 c. dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1/4 t. salt
1 t. bread machine yeast
3.5 c. all-purpose flour

cinnamon roll crust filling ingredients:
1/4 c. softened unsalted butter (room temperature)
enough brown sugar, cinnamon, and chopped pecans to cover dough

Place non-filling ingredients in a bread machine and run on the "dough" setting. Roll out dough into a long 1/2"-thick strip. Cover with filling ingredients. Roll up and slice (I got 4-5 large slices out of mine). Place slices on a sheet of plastic wrap (to make transfer easier) on a baking sheet and let rise 1 hour (or don't!).

bottom crust ingredients:
1 c. all-purpose flour
1 t. sugar
1/4 t. salt
5.5 T. unsalted butter
1-3 T. ice water

Place flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor and pulse to mix. Add butter and pulse until resembles coarse meal. Add enough ice water to get the dough to just pull together. Roll out the dough and place in a 9" pie dish. Crimp edges and pierce dough with a fork all over. Freeze 10 minutes. Fill with pie weights and bake at 375F for 12 minutes. Remove pie weights and bake for 12 minutes more. Cool.

apple pie filling ingredients:
7-8 large Ginger Gold apples (peeled, cored, & thickly sliced)
1/4 c. freshly squeezed orange/lemon juice
2.5 T. unsalted butter
1/4 c. sugar
1/8 c. brown sugar
1 t. ground cinnamon
1 T. arrowroot starch
1/4 c. applesauce

Toss apple slices with orange/lemon juice and all ingredients except 2.5 T. butter in a large bowl. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add apple mixture and sautee until apples are soft, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Pour apple mixture into prebaked pie shell. Place giant cinnamon rolls (about 2) on top. Bake at 375F for 18-20 minutes. Cool. Mix 1/2 c. confectioner's sugar with 2-3 T. cream, until a nice icing consistency is achieved. Drizzle icing over top of pie. Enjoy!

Current Pie Tally: 120