Salted Butter Caramel Apple Pie with Vodka Pie Crust

My church went apple picking last weekend, and I went with the express purpose of picking apples to make this pie.  Or more precisely, so I could make this pie crust from America's Test Kitchen.  I first made the vodka pie crust three years ago with Tammy.  It made the flakiest, most flavorful pie crust I had ever eaten, but it uses shortening, an ingredient I don't usually have on hand.  Luckily, my new roommate had some from when she made this same pie crust (it's her favorite, too!).

*photo by Tammy Hui

According to America's Test Kitchen, the addition of the vodka helps to keep the pie dough tender because it inhibits the formation of gluten while still acting like a binder for the dry ingredients.  The shortening also helps to prevent gluten from forming because unlike butter, it doesn't contain any water.  Yay, science! 

*Pro-tip:  If you don't have a rolling pin, the vodka bottle works!

I adapted the filling and salted caramel sauce from Sally's Baking Addiction.  Sadly, I took my sugar off the heat too soon, and my sauce is more of a blond sweet butter sauce than a caramel, but it still tastes uber delicious!

If you can, try to use a variety of apples for the pie so you have some sweet and some tart, some softer and some firmer.  I picked Macintosh, Golden Supreme, and Honeycrisp apples for this pie.

Salted Butter Caramel Apple Pie with Vodka Pie Crust
makes 1 pie

For the pie crust:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces and chilled
8 tablespoons vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces and chilled
1/4 cup vodka, chilled
1/4 cup ice water

Process 1 1/2 cups flour, sugar, and salt together in food processor until combined.  Scatter butter and shortening over top and continue to process until incorporated and mixture begins to form uneven clumps with no remaining floury bits.  Sprinkle remaining 1 cup flour over dough and pulse until mixture has broken up into pieces and is evenly distributed around the bowl.

Transfer mixture to a large bowl.  Sprinkle vodka and ice water over mixture.  Stir and press dough together, using stiff rubber spatula, until dough sticks together.

Divide dough into 2 even pieces.  Turn each piece of dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and flatten each into a 4-inch disk.  Wrap each piece tightly in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

For the caramel sauce:
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup room temperature water
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
2 tablespoons heavy cream

Combine the granulated sugar, salt, and water in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar is dissolved.  Turn the heat down to medium-low and cook without stirring, until the syrup becomes a medium dark amber caramel, about 15 minutes.

Remove the pan from heat and immediately stir in the room temperature butter and cold heavy cream. Do not worry if the butter starts to separate; it will come together as the caramel cools. Transfer the caramel to a medium bowl and whisk until the caramel begins to come together.  Set aside.

For the apple pie:
2 teaspoons fresh lemon zest
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
6 large apples, cored, peeled, and thinly sliced (use a variety for better flavor, such as Macintosh, Golden Supreme, and Honey Crisp)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon milk

Put the lemon zest and lemon juice into a very large bowl. Add the apples and toss gently. In a small mixing bowl, combine the flour, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and sugar. Pour over the apples and gently toss to combine. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 400°F.

On a floured work surface, roll out one of the balls of chilled dough (keep the other one in the refrigerator). Turn the dough about a quarter turn after every few rolls until you have a circle about 12" in diameter. Carefully place the dough into a 9"x2" pie dish. Tuck it in with your fingers, making sure it is smooth.

Fill the pie crust with the apples. There are a lot of apples, but pile them tightly and very high. Drizzle with 1/2 cup of the salted caramel, reserving the rest for topping.

Roll out the other ball of dough to a 10" circle.  Carefully place on top of the pie.  Fold over any excess dough and crimp all the way around.  Cut a few slits into the top with a sharp knife.

Make an egg wash by beating the egg yolk with the milk.  Brush the top with a very thin coating.

Place the pie onto a large baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Keeping the pie in the oven, turn the temperature down to 350°F and bake for an additional 40-50 minutes. If the top of your pie is getting too brown, cover loosely with aluminum foil. The pie will be done when the caramel begins to bubble up. A small knife inserted inside should come out relatively clean.

Allow the pie to cool for 4 hours before serving. Drizzle the pie with the extra caramel sauce to serve.

Previously:   Sweet Corn Ice Cream with Black Raspberry Swirl
Next:  Apple Cider Donuts

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Pretzel Ice Cream Pie with Homemade Magic Shell

Can you handle one more pie from Momofuku Milk Bar?  Because I think I've done the impossible:  I've improved a recipe from the Momofuku Milk Bar.  Yeah, I know, right?

This Pretzel Ice Cream Pie is pretty similar to the Cereal Milk Ice Cream Pie except that, you guessed it, you substitute the cornflakes for pretzels.  This time I actually followed the Preztel Ice Cream recipe from the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook because I had all the ingredients, and the best part is, it didn't use any eggs.  Instead, it thickens the ice cream base with gelatin.

The only thing is, after tasting the ice cream, it tasted a little too salty for me.  Now I'm all for salty sweet combos, but this was just a little too much.  But then I thought, what if I added some chocolate, like chocolate covered pretzels?  (It's kind of funny because chocolate covered pretzels were my first introduction to salty sweet snacks, and now I add salt to almost every sweet, even chocolate ice cream!)

I remembered that an easy recipe for homemade Magic Shell, that liquid chocolate sauce you pour on top of ice cream which hardens into a "magic shell", had made it's way around the internets a while back and thought it would be a perfect topping for this pie.  And it was!  In fact, if I were to make this again, I might pour a layer of Magic Shell on top of the Pretzel Crunch pie crust before adding the ice cream because it would help keep the pie crust together better, I think.

 
Pretzel Ice Cream Pie with Homemade Magic Shell (from Momofuku Milk Bar)
makes 1 pie

Pretzel Crunch Pie Crust

• 2 cups pretzels (about 1/4 of a 16 oz. bag)
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar, tightly packed
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 cup milk powder
• 1 tablespoon malt powder (if you can find it; if you can't, like me, substitute with flour)
• 7 tablespoons butter, melted
•  

Heat the oven to 275°F.

 
Pour the pretzels in a medium bowl and crush them with your hands to one-quarter of their original size. Add the milk powder, malt powder, sugar, and salt and toss to mix. Add the butter and toss to coat.

 
Spread the clusters on a parchment- or Silpat-lined sheet pan and bake for 20 minutes.  Cool completely.

Using your hands (or a food processor if you prefer), crumble the pretzel crunch clusters to half their size.

 
Toss the melted butter into the crumbled pretzel crunch, mixing well. Using your fingers and the palms of your hands, press the mixture firmly into a 10-inch pie tin, making sure the bottom and sides of the pie tin are evenly covered.

 
Pretzel Ice Cream

• 6 cups pretzels (about 3/4 of a 16 oz. bag)
• 2 cups milk
• 2/4 teaspoon powdered gelatin
• 1/4 cup corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar, tightly packed
• 1 1/2 oz. cream cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda

Heat the oven to 300°F.

 
Spread the pretzels on a sheet pan and toast for 15 minutes, until the pretzels have slightly darkened in color and your kitchen smells pretzely. Cool completely.

 
Put the pretzels in a large bowl, pour the milk over them, and stir while steeping for 2 minutes.

 
Strain the milk mixture through a fine-mesh sieve and discard the soggy pieces of pretzel.

Bloom the gelatin in 2 tablespoons of cold water.

 
Warm a little bit of the pretzel milk and whisk in the gelatin to dissolve. Add the remaining pretzel milk, corn syrup, brown sugar, cream cheese, salt, and baking soda and use a hand or immersion blender to whisk until all of the ingredients are fully dissolved and incorporated.  Chill the mixture.

 
Pour the mixture into your ice cream machine and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.

 
Use a spatula to spread the ice cream into the pie shell.  Put the pie in the freezer to chill while you make the magic shell.

 
Homemade Magic Shell
3 tablespoons chocolate chips
1 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil

 
Combine the chocolate chips and coconut oil in a small bowl and microwave at 50% power for 30 seconds.  Stir, and continue to microwave at 50% power, stirring every 15 seconds until thoroughly melted.

 
Drizzle over the pie and then freeze the pie for at least 3 hours, or until the ice cream is frozen hard enough so the pie is easy to cut and serve. Wrapped in plastic wrap, the pie will keep for 2 weeks in the freezer.

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Grapefruit Pie

Did I ever tell you that I used to be a chemist?  While I don't work in a lab anymore (for which I'm eternally grateful), I do miss it sometimes.  I guess I kind of view the kitchen as my laboratory these days--a place to experiment and create new things.  This next recipe isn't my creation; it's from Momofuku Milk Bar, but it does have some really cool steps.  You gently heat grapefruit sections with a small amount of oil, and all the little "kernels" separate from one another.  And when you add grapefruit juice and citric acid to sweetened condensed milk, it thickens without needing to add any heat.  Luckily, I was able to find citric acid in the bulk spice section of my local grocery store. 

There are quite a few steps to making this pie, but the end result is pretty impressive, so I think it's worth it.  First you make some Ritz crunch (like Cornflake Crunch, but with Ritz crackers) and then press it into a pie pan.  Then you make a grapefruit and passion fruit curd that becomes the bottom layer of the pie.  Finally you make the sweetened condensed grapefruit layer and spread it on top before chilling the whole thing to set it.

 
Grapefruit Pie (from Momofuku Milk Bar)
makes 1 pie

Ritz Crunch
1 sleeve Ritz crackers
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Pour the crackers in a medium bowl and crush them with your hands to one-quarter of their original size. Add the milk powder, sugar and salt, and toss to mix. Add the butter and toss to coat. As you toss, the butter will act as glue, binding the dry ingredients to the cracker pieces and creating small clusters.

 
Preheat oven to 275°F.

 
Press the Ritz crunch into a 10″ pie plate. Using your fingers and the palms of your hands, press the crunch in firmly, making sure to cover the bottom and sides evenly and completely. Put the tin on a sheet pan and bake for 20 minutes. Cool the crust completely.

Grapefruit Passion Curd
1/4 cup passion fruit puree
3 tablespoons sugar
1 large egg
1/4 teaspoon powdered gelatin
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 large grapefruit
1 teaspoon canola oil

 
Put the passion fruit puree and sugar into a blender and blend until the sugar has dissolved. Add the egg and blend on low until the mixture is smooth and bright orange-yellow. Pour the mixture into a medium saucepan and clean the blender canister.

Bloom the gelatin in 2 tablespoons cold water.

 
Heat the passion fruit mixture over low heat, whisking regularly as it thickens. Once it starts to boil, transfer back to the blender. Add the bloomed gelatin, butter, and salt, and beat until the mixture is super-smooth. Transfer to a container and chill in the fridge until completely cool.

 

While it’s cooling, remove the rind of the grapefruit completely, leaving no white pith behind.  Then carefully remove each segment of grapefruit from its membrane by slicing down both sides of each segment along the membrane to the center of the fruit; the segments should come right out.

 
In a small saucepan heat the oil and grapefruit on low heat, stirring occasionally. After about 2 minutes, the warm oil will help separate and encapsulate the individual grapefruit ‘kernels’. Remove from heat and let the kernels cool slightly before proceeding.

 

Using a spoon or rubber spatula, gently stir the grapefruit kernels into the cooled passion fruit curd.

Using a spoon or an offset spatula, spread the grapefruit passion curd evenly over the bottom of the Ritz crust. Put the pie in the freezer to set the curd until firm, about 30 minutes.

Sweetened Condensed Grapefruit

3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons grapefruit juice

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon citric acid

1 drop red food coloring

Combine the sweetened condensed milk, grapefruit juice, salt, citric acid and food coloring in a medium bowl and mix with a rubber spatula by stirring and folding over the mixture until it is homogeneous.

Using a spoon or an offset spatula, spread the sweetened condensed grapefruit on top of the curd, being careful not to mix the two layers and making sure the curd is entirely covered. Return to the freezer until ready to slice and serve. Wrapped (gently) in plastic, the pie can be frozen for up to 1 month.

 
I'd recommend thawing the pie a little before serving because the filling can get a little icy straight out of the freezer.  Other than that, this is a really great pie, kind of like the grown up version of a key lime pie.  I think it'd make a nice change from all the more traditional apple and pumpkin pies at a holiday meal.  And I still can't get over how cool it is that there are little individual kernels of grapefruit suspended in the passion fruit curd.  Isn't it so pretty?

 
Next:  Pretzel Ice Cream Pie with Homemade Magic Shell
Previously:  Duchikey (or Simplified Turducken)

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Cereal Milk Ice Cream and Pie

If you're not tired of all the cereal milk creations yet, here's two more:  Cereal Milk Ice Cream and Cereal Milk Ice Cream Pie.  First, the ice cream. The recipe in the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook called for powdered freeze-dried corn, which I just didn't feel like looking for or buying off the internet.  Luckily, I found this recipe on-line that doesn't use freeze-dried corn but instead steeps the ice cream base in caramelized cornflakes, which were similar enough to Cornflake Crunch that I just used that instead.

 
Cereal Milk Ice Cream (adapted from Cafe Fernando)
makes almost a quart

1 recipe Cornflake Crunch (you really only need 3 1/2 cups, and you should have that much left over if you made the whole batch just to garnish the panna cotta)
4 cups whole milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 
In a large bowl, combine 3 1/2 cups cornflake crunch with the whole milk and let steep for an hour.

Strain the milk with the help of a fine-mesh sieve (make sure to press on the cornflakes with a spatula to extract as much liquid as possible).  You should get about 2 cups of cereal milk out of this.

Combine the cereal milk and salt in a small pot and bring to a boil over medium heat.

 
In the meantime, in a medium pot, whisk together egg yolks with sugar. Slowly pour the warm milk mixture into the yolks while whisking constantly. Pour back into the pot and place over medium heat, stirring until the mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon.

Pour the custard through a strainer into a medium bowl and add the heavy cream and vanilla extract.  Stir to combine.

 
Chill the mixture and then freeze in an ice cream maker.  Serve with remaining cornflake crunch.

 
As soon as I tasted this ice cream, I remembered why I like Jeni's ice creams so much; all I could taste were the egg yolks.  I had gotten so used to making ice cream without eggs that the taste was kind of overwhelming.  After a couple of bites I got used to it, though, and other than that initial reaction, I really liked it.  It also makes the best root beer float you've ever tasted.

 
And it goes great with the cornflake crunch as a topping.  Which means it'll go even better with the cornflake crunch as a pie crust!

 
Cereal Milk Ice Cream Pie (from Momofuku Milk Bar)
makes 1 pie

1/2 recipe Cornflake Crunch (2 cups)
25 g melted butter (2 tablespoons)
3 cups Cereal Milk Ice Cream

Using your hands (or a food processor if you prefer), crumble the cornflake crunch clusters to half their size.

 
Toss the melted butter into the crumbled cornflake crunch, mixing well.  Using your fingers and the palms of you hands, press the mixture firmly into a 10-inch pie tin, making sure the bottom and sides of the pie tin are evenly covered.

 
Use a spatula to spread the ice cream into the pie shell.  Freeze the pie for at least 3 hours, or until the ice cream is frozen hard enough so the pie is easy to cut and serve.  Wrapped in plastic wrap, the pie will keep for 2 weeks in the freezer.

I thought the pie was the perfect ratio of ice cream to cornflake crunch and a fun way to serve ice cream at a gathering.

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