Clean Classic Apple Pie

 
During my senior year of college, I reconnected with one of my friends from high school who attended a different university. After realizing how much I love sports (I still watch more games on TV than shows on the Food Network!), he snagged us a pair of tickets for a professional hockey game between two of the biggest rivals in the league.  

Throughout the afternoon, we laughed and caught up, trading stories about the past four years at college, and by the time the game’s final buzzer sounded, we had made plans to get together again a few weeks later after midterm season had ended.

As a big foodie, my friend enjoyed cooking big meals to share with his other friends that lived in the same apartment building, but he never baked desserts to go with the dinners. That’s where I came in—he wanted to learn how to bake an apple pie!
 

 
That Friday afternoon, I loaded my car with a few pounds of apples and all of the ingredients to make a pie crust from scratch, and when I parallel parked outside of his high-rise building, we walked everything upstairs and immediately got to work.

His roommate and a few other friends were already in the apartment, sitting on the couches while watching hockey highlights on TV from the previous night’s games, but his roommate quickly followed us into the kitchen as we unpacked ingredients. He wanted to learn how to bake an apple pie too!

My high school friend volunteered for the task of slicing apples for the filling, so I started supervising his roommate, who was in charge of mixing up the dough for the crust. Both looked like naturals and easily completed their jobs, but then we hit a little snag…
 

 
I had forgotten my rolling pin at home!

The two of them improvised by grabbing the tallest bottle of wine in their kitchen, and after double-checking that the cork was tightly nestled inside, they rolled out the pie crusts with the bottle. They assembled and baked the pie without any other hiccups, and after a quick trip to the grocery store for fresh vanilla bean ice cream, we slowly savored huge, warm slices à la mode.
 

 
And now, every time I bake an apple pie—or even just see one at the grocery store—I think of that one we made with a wine bottle and laugh. I remembered that story while making this Clean Eating Classic Apple Pie, too, and with its cozy cinnamon-spiced fruit filling my kitchen with tantalizing smells, it disappeared even faster than the pie my friend baked in college!
 

 
Let’s start with the pie crust. A flaky crust requires butter. There’s just nothing we can do about that. It’s possible to substitute Greek yogurt or applesauce for butter in muffins or cupcakes, but do NOT try to do that with a pie crust. The fat in butter is what gives a pie crust is crisp, flaky texture, and any other low-fat or fat-free ingredient will make the crust gummy and soggy instead.

However, there is a silver lining! Many traditional pie crusts require a full ½ cup of butter—or more!—but I managed to make this healthier one with merely 4 tablespoons of butter. You’ll add a tiny splash of milk and apple cider vinegar to the crust as well, plus a tiny bit of pure maple syrup for a hint of sweetness.

So to make the crust, you’ll start with white whole wheat flour. It’s made from white wheat, as opposed to the “red” wheat that regular whole wheat flour comes from. This different type of wheat produces a lighter texture that’s closer to all-purpose flour, yet it still contains the same health benefits as regular whole wheat flour. Whole wheat pastry flour would work as well, and both can be found on the baking aisle of most grocery stores.
 

 
Next comes the butter. I highly recommend mixing it into the flour with a pastry cutter! They’re relatively inexpensive—I found mine at Walmart for less than $4—and they’re great for making my scone recipes as well. Continue working the butter into the flour until it resembles fine crumbs, like in the picture above.

Then you’ll add the remaining crust ingredients a little at a time, mixing them into the flour mixture until it forms a dough. Shape that into a 4”-wide circle, cover with two large sheets of plastic wrap, and chill for at least an hour.

This next part is different than with traditional crust recipes…
 

 
You’ll leave the crust between the plastic wrap to roll it out! (And yes, I skipped the wine bottle and used my regular rolling pin for this!) This trick makes it easier to both transfer it into the pie plate as well as to roll into a thin circle because you don’t need extra flour for the crust or rolling pin.

For the filling, you’ll use my homemade slow cooker apple pie filling recipe. Many of you have asked whether it’s possible to bake into a pie, and here’s the answer—YES! It already contains plenty of cozy spices and cornstarch to thicken, and the apples’ texture stays soft with just a hint of firmness after baking.
 

 
The hardest part is waiting for the pie to cool and set for a few hours, but I promise it’s worth the wait. My family agreed that this apple pie is one of the best they’ve ever had!
 

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