Apple Pie with All-Butter Crust

I've been less and less satisfied with the pie crusts I've been producing. They've been getting more and more complicated to put together. Do I have Crisco? (I never have Crisco, since I only ever buy it once a year.) Wet the flour with vodka...no, not vodka, calvados! With a spray bottle! With ice cubes in it! Dig out the food processor. Pulse process--is the butter pea-sized yet? (You can look back at my original post for apple pie to see all the steps I'm talking about.) And it would take me forever to roll out the dough, and it was cracking, and it never seemed flaky. Maybe I just suck at pastry, I thought.

So, I was looking for something else to try. I found Smitten Kitchen's recipe for all butter, really flaky pie dough. She [Deb Perelman] had been using the same Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen recipe that I had been working with. One by one, she enumerated all the problems she had with what she'd been doing. And she proposed ditching the shortening, the vodka, the food processor...all the things that had made pie crust such a pain. That left just five ingredients--flour, butter, sugar, salt, and water--and minimal equipment. Could it be that easy?

Bread Stuffing with Sausage, Cranberry, and Dried Apple

Our family stuffing has always included sausage. Nothing brings a flavor punch like a pound of pork sausage browned up and added to your stuffing (especially when it's not actually going in the bird). This is the second or third year that I've been preparing stuffing for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday meals, and it's undergone some evolutions. We started adding dried cranberries to the bread stuffing once dried sweetened cranberries became available regularly; this Thanksgiving I had dried apples on hand, and the added sweetness went well with the pork sausage.

This recipe is based on America's Test Kitchen's basic "Classic Stuffing for a Crowd" recipe, which is a great base for trying your own interpretations for the next holiday gathering. It's very easy, and can be made with (plain) storebought bread cubes in place of homemade--just make sure to increase the amount of chicken broth to 7 cups to compensate for the lower moisture content.

ATK points out that you can air-dry the bread cubes if you work it a day (or, ideally, two) ahead of time; but, if you don't want 5 cookie sheets with ½-inch bread cubes drying in a single layer taking up counter space in your kitchen, you can dry the cubes in a 300-degree oven for 30-60 minutes and let them cool prior to mixing with the other ingredients.

Ingredients

1½ pounds bulk breakfast sausage

12 tablespoons butter (1½ sticks), plus extra for baking dish

4 medium ribs celery, chopped fine

2 medium onions, minced

½ cup minced fresh parsley leaves

3 tablespoons minced fresh sage leaves (or 2 teaspoons dried)

3 tablespoons minced fresh thyme leaves (or 2 teaspoons dried)

1 tablespoon minced fresh marjoram leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried)

3 pounds high-quality sandwich bread (white), cut into ½-inch cubes and dried

1 ½ cups dried sweetened cranberries

¾ cup dried apple, diced medium

5 cups chicken stock or low-sodium chicken broth

4 large eggs, beaten lightly

2 teaspoons table salt

2 teaspoons ground black pepper

Hardware
large skillet (12 inches minimum)
very large mixing bowl
wooden spoon
15 x 10-inch baking dish (see step 3 for substitutions)
baking sheet (for drying bread cubes)
aluminum foil

Instructions

1. Adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Cook sausage in a large skillet over medium heat, breaking it up into smaller pieces with a wooden spoon, until lightly browned, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove the sausage from the skillet and reserve. Drain the fat, and reserve.

2. Either add all the butter to the now empty skillet, or substitute the reserved sausage fat for an equal amount of butter -- you'll need a total 12 of tablespoons of fat. Add the celery and onion and sauté, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 10 minutes. Stir in parsley, sage, thyme, and marjoram and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute longer. Transfer to a very large mixing bowl.

3. Add the sausage, cranberries, apple, dried, cooled bread, stock or broth, eggs, salt, and pepper to the vegetables and toss gently to distribute dry and wet ingredients evenly. Turn mixture into buttered 15-x 10-inch baking dish. (If you don't have a 15 x 10 dish, here is a guide to substitutions--more mixture in a smaller dish means a denser texture.)

4. Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and continue to bake until golden, about 30 minutes longer. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

To Make Ahead: The stuffing can be assembled in the baking dish, then wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 24 hours before baking. To bake, let the stuffing stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Remove the plastic wrap and proceed to bake as directed in step 3.

Apple Pie

Cook's Illustrated, and its television show, America's Test Kitchen, are really my go-to source for all things cooking-related: recipes, tips, ratings of brands or gadgets. Whether I want to know the cheapest cut of meat that will taste good and pan-sear well, which brand of olive oil is a best buy, or a tip to get around a problem I didn't have the knowledge or the equipment to fix, Cook's Illustrated is where I look first.

So the recipe I've been experimenting with for apple pie, which is usually my responsibility at holiday dinners, is based on the one in The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook (a.k.a. my culinary bible). I've edited it over the past few holiday seasons based on my own experience, tips from family, and recipes from Alton Brown (a.k.a. The Man). It's still a work in progress, but below is the recipe as I've developed so far.

Hardware

• 1 9-inch pie plate
• rolling pin
• cling wrap for refrigerating dough
• food processor (not absolutely essential, but incredibly time-saving)
• spray bottle for dispersing liquid into dough
• baking sheet

Ingredients
For the crust:

• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling out the dough
• 2 tbs sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 8 tbs Crisco or vegetable shortening, frozen or chilled in ice water
• 12 tbs butter, unsalted, frozen, in ½-¾ inch cubes (don't stress about getting the butter completely uniform in size)
• 6 to 8 tbs of vodka, brandy (or Calvados...Alton Brown recommends applejack) or liquor of choice; in a spray bottle with ice (water can be substituted if you prefer not to use alcohol in the recipe)

For the filling:

• 2 lbs (4 to 6) Mclntosh apples, peeled, cored, and cut into wedges, about ½ inch wide
• 1½ pounds (3 to 4) Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut into wedges, about ½ inch wide
• ¼ cup + 1 tbs white sugar
• 2/3 cup light brown sugar, tightly packed
  
• ¼ cup dark brown sugar, tightly packed
• 2 tbs flour
• 1½ tbs lemon juice
• 1 tsp fresh lemon zest
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tbs cinnamon
• 2 tsp nutmeg
• a dusting of ground clove

Directions
For the crust:

1. Process the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor until combined. Scatter the shortening over the top and process until the mixture has the texture of coarse sand, about 10 seconds.
   
2. Scatter the butter pieces over the top and, using short pulses, process the mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs, about 10 pulses. Transfer to a bowl.
3. Use the spray bottle containing the liquor/ice mixture, gently mixing with a rubber spatula after every 5-6 sprays. Press the dough together with the spatula until the dough sticks together. (Test by grabbing a bit of dough and squeezing it in your fist. The dough should come together easily, but not be sticky.) If the dough does not come together, distribute the remaining liquid until it does.
4. Divide the dough into two even pieces and flatten each into a 4-inch disk. Wrap the disks tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight.
   
5. Let the chilled dough soften slightly at room temperature before rolling it out and fitting the bottom crust into a 9-inch pie plate.

To Make Ahead: The dough can be refrigerated, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 2 months. Let the frozen dough thaw on the countertop until malleable before rolling.

For the filling:

1. Adjust an oven rack to the lowest position, place a rimmed baking sheet on the rack, and heat the oven to 500°F (260°C).
2. Toss the apples with ¼ cup of the white sugar, the light brown sugar, and the salt. Transfer the apple mixture to a colander and set to drain in the sink for about 45 minutes.
3. While the apples are draining, roll out the top crust to a 12-inch circle.
4. Transfer the apples from the colander back into the mixing bowl. Add the flour, spices, dark brown sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Mix to combine.
   
5. Spread the apples in the unbaked pie crust bottom, mounding them slightly in the middle. Loosely roll the top crust around the rolling pin, then gently unroll it over the apples.
   
6. Trim all but 1/2-inch of the dough overhanging the edge of the pie plate with scissors. Seal the edge by pressing the top and bottom crusts together, then tuck the edges underneath. Crimp the edges, and cut four vent holes in the top. Brush the crust with the egg white and sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar.
7. Place the pie on the heated baking sheet and lower the oven temperature to 425°F (220°C). Bake until the top crust is golden, about 25 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet, reduce the oven temperature again to 375°F (190°C), and continue to bake until the juices are bubbling and the crust is deep golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes longer. Transfer the pie to a wire rack and cool to room temperature before serving.

To Make Ahead: The pie can be stored at room temperature, wrapped tightly in aluminum foil, for up to 2 days.