Brandy Apple Pie Recipes

DUBE'S BRANDY APPLE PIE

Steps:

• Make the crust:
• In a large bowl, sift together flours, sugar, salt, baking powder, and mace.
• Cut in butter with a pastry blender until pea-sized clumps form.
• In a small bowl, whisk together brandy, vanilla, and whole egg. Pour into flour mixture and blend with a fork until mixture is moist and holds together.
• Turn the dough out onto a work surface. Divide in two.
• Sprinkle with just enough flour and sugar to coat.
• Place each half on a sheet of plastic wrap.
• Flatten and form two discs.
• Wrap, and refrigerate at least 1 hour before using.
• Make the filling:
• In a large bowl, sift together sugars, flour, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and mace; set aside.
• Place apples in another large bowl.
• In a small bowl, mix together brandy and vanilla; pour over apples.
• Add 3/4 of the flour mixture to the apples; toss to combine.
• Preheat the oven to 400°.
• Butter and flour a 12-inch pie plate; set aside.
• Place two large sheets of plastic wrap on top of one another on a work surface.
• Sprinkle with enough flour and sugar to lightly coat.
• Place 1 disc of dough on plastic wrap, and lightly sprinkle with flour and sugar.
• Cover dough with 2 large pieces plastic wrap.
• Roll out dough between plastic wrap to a 14-inch circle.
• Peel off top layers of plastic wrap and flip dough over into prepared pie plate.
• Carefully peel off remaining layers of plastic wrap.
• Using scissors or a sharp paring knife, trim edges to 1 inch. Reserve trimmings.
• Sprinkle reserved flour mixture into pastry-lined pie plate.
• Fill with apple mixture, mounding in the center; dot with butter.
• Roll out second disc of dough between plastic wrap following the same process as above.
• Lay over apples.
• Cut vents into top crust.
• Trim edges to 1 inch and seal crimping edges with thumb and forefinger.
• Divide beaten egg yolk in half.
• Add enough red food coloring to half the yolk to create desired shade of red; set remaining yolk aside.
• Gather reserved pastry trimmings together and roll 1/8-inch thick; brush with colored yolk.
• Cut out into leaf shapes.
• Brush top of pie with reserved egg yolk and attach decorative shapes.
• Sprinkle with sugar.
• Place pie on a baking sheet.
• This will catch any juices that may overflow during baking.
• Loosely cover pie with parchment-lined aluminum foil.
• Transfer pie to oven and bake for about 1 hour.
• Reduce temperature to 375° and continue baking for another hour.
• During the last 10 minutes of baking, remove foil so that the pie has a nice golden color.
• Serve pie warm.

BRANDY APPLE PIE

Steps:

• In a large bowl, combine the 2 1/3 cups of flour, and salt. Cut in butter until crumbly.
• Gradually add water, tossing with a fork until a ball forms.
• Divide dough in half, so that one portion is slightly larger than the other, wrap each in plastic wrap.
• Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or until easy to handle.
• In a small saucepan, over low heat, cook raisins in brandy for 13-15 minutes or until raisins are plump. Strain reserving liquid, and set raisins aside.
• In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg. Add the apples, lemon juice, raisins, and 1/2 teaspoon of the reserved liquid in the previous step.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out larger portion of dough to fit in a 9 inch pie plate.
• Transfer pastry to pie plate.
• Trim pastry even with the edges, then add apple filling, and dot with butter.
• Roll out remaining pastry to fit top of pie, and place over the filling.
• Trim, seal, and flute edges. Cut slits in pastry, and cover edges loosely with foil.
• Bake at 400 degrees for 45-55 minutes or until bubbly.
• Cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes.

APPLE HAND PIES

Steps:

• Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.
• Cut peeled and cored apples into quarters, cut each quarter into 3 wedges, and cut wedges into chunks.
• Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat; let butter brown to a light golden color and until butter smells toasted, about 1 minute. Stir apples into hot butter; sprinkle with salt, white sugar, and brown sugar. Cook and stir apple mixture until apples are softened, about 5 minutes. Mix in cinnamon and water; continue cooking until apples are soft and sticky, 1 to 2 more minutes. Spread apple filling onto a plate to cool.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
• Form a dough piece into a ball, place on a floured work surface, and roll into a circle about 8 inches in diameter. Spoon 1/3 to 1/2 cup apple filling in the center. Fold dough over filling, leaving about 1 inch of dough on the bottom side visible below the top side. Gently press dough closed around filling, using your fingertips.
• Fold the overhanging bottom part of the dough up over the top edge, working your way around the crust, and pinch the overhang tightly to the top part of the crust.
• Crimp the edge tightly closed, pinching a little bit of dough with the thumb and forefinger of one hand and using your index finger on the other hand to push a small notch into the pinched dough. Continue pinching and notching all the way around until the crust is tightly crimped together. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Transfer pies onto prepared baking sheet.
• Whisk egg with milk in a small bowl until thoroughly combined. Brush top of each hand pie with egg mixture and sprinkle with about 1/4 teaspoon white sugar. Cut 3 small vent holes in the top of each pie.
• Bake in the preheated oven until pies are golden brown and filling is bubbling, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.

APPLE PIE WITH CALVADOS

Steps:

• Sift and combine the flour and salt. Mix in 5/6 cup of butter gradually with a dough wisk (leave 1 tbsp for step 5). Mix in just enough ice water until the dough just starts to hold together. Transfer to a work surface, divide in half, and flatten to form two disks that are about 3/4" thick. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes. (You can do this ahead of time and refrigerate for longer. It's okay but will take longer to warm up and roll out in next step.).
• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out 1 piece of dough to fit a 9-inch pie plate. Fit the dough into the pie plate, and trim and flute the edges. Refrigerate the pie plate. Roll out the remaining dough for the top crust, and refrigerate.
• Peel, core, and slice the apples, and place in a large bowl. Pour the lemon juice over the apples and stir so that all pieces are covered. Add the brown sugar and stir again.
• Mix together the spices, starch, and calvados. Add a little of water if needed to mix evenly. Pour the mixture over the apples and stir.
• Spoon the apple mixture into the bottom crust in the pie plate. Dot with the 1 tbsp of butter. Place the top crust on the fruit, seal with the bottom crust, and flute the edges. Use a knife or awl to create several steam holes in the top crust. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees F and bake until golden brown, 40 to 45 minutes more. Let cool to room temperature before serving.

APPLE PIE WITH CORNMEAL CRUST AND CARAMEL BRANDY SAUCE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425°F Peel and core the apples, cut into thick wedges. In a large bowl mix together the first 8 ingredients: apples, flour, apple jelly, lemon juice, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and sugar. Let stand for 30 minutes gently strirring every few minutes.
• Prepare the cornmeal crust. Stir together flour, cornmeal, sugar and salt into a large bowl. Cut butter and shortening into the flour mixture with pastry blender or fork until it resembles small peas. Mound the mixture into side of bowl. Drizzle half of the apple cider along the edge of the mixture in bowl. With fork gently toss a small amount of flour mixture with cider until dry ingredients are moistened. Repeat procedure with remaning cider and flour mixture. Gently gather dough into flat disks. Wrap in plastic and chill for 1 to 24 hours.
• Roll out one disk of dough into 1/8 inch thickness between two floured pieces of wax papers. Remove and discard top sheet of wax paper and place dough over a 9 inch glass pie plate removing the other sheet of wax paper.
• Stir apple mixture and reserve 1 tablespoons of juice. Spoon apples into crust, packing tightly and mounding in the center. Sprinkle apples with 3 tablespoons of sugar and dot with butter.
• Roll out the other disk of dough as directed before and place over filling. Fold edges under, sealing to bottom crust and crimp into fluted edges. Brush pie with reserved juice and sprinkle with sugar. Place pie on a jelly roll pan. Cut slits on top of pie to allow steam to escape.
• Bake at 425 F on lower oven rack for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 F and move pie to the middle oven rack. Bake for 35 more minutes. Cover with aluminum foil to prevent crust from over browning and bake 30 more minutes. Pie is done when juices are thick and bubbly and crust is golden brown. Remove to wire rack to cool.
• Prepare the caramel-brandy sauce. Bring whipping cram to a light boil in large saucepan; stirring occasionally. Add the sugar; stirring occasinally for about 4-5 minutes until mixture is smooth. Remove from heat add butter, brandy and vanilla and allow to cool.
• Serve the apple pie with the caramel-brandy sauce.

SHINGLED-LEAF BRANDY APPLE PIE

Steps:

• On a lightly floured surface, roll out 1 disk of dough to a 13-inch round, 1/8 inch thick. Fit into a 9-inch pie pan. Trim excess dough flush with rim. Refrigerate or freeze until firm, about 30 minutes.
• Roll out remaining 2 disks of dough about 1/8 inch thick. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and refrigerate or freeze until firm, about 30 minutes. Using a 2 1/4-inch leaf-shaped cutter, cut out about 65 leaves, and place them in a single layer on the baking sheet. Refrigerate until firm.
• Preheat oven to 400°F. In a large bowl, toss apples with flour, brandy, vanilla, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and salt. Fill pie shell with apple mixture. Dot with butter.
• Score leaves with a paring knife to make veins. Lightly brush edge of pie shell with water. Lightly brush the back of each leaf with water; beginning with the outside edge, arrange leaves in a slightly overlapping ring. Repeat to form another ring slightly overlapping the first. Continue until only a small circle of filling is left uncovered in the center.
• In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolk and heavy cream. Carefully brush top of leaves and pie edge with egg wash, and sprinkle generously with sanding sugar. Refrigerate or freeze until firm, about 30 minutes.
• Place pie on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and bake until crust just begins to brown, about 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F, and continue baking until crust is golden brown and juices are bubbling, 85 minutes. Transfer pie to a wire rack to cool completely.