Cathy: “Apple Pie without the cheese is like a hug without the squeeze” according to Vermont lore. Vermont has its own style of apple pie too. The Vermont apple pie has a flaky double crust topped with a thick slice of warm but not melted cheddar cheese. The sharp, tangy Cheddar is the perfect complement to sweet, mellow apples and brown sugar. In fact, apple pie is always supposed to be served with cheese, by legal statute, although a glass of milk or a scoop of ice cream are considered “good faith” efforts.
And in Vermont, it is considered fine to have a slice of pie and cheese for breakfast, if you plan to “do a day’s work.” That sounds perfect to me!
Though a fan of apple pie “a la mode”, the warm/cold combo has always been a favorite of mine, it’s fun to try it other ways, as in with the nice hunk of cheddar on the side. I’m not one to argue with a New Englander!
Perfect Pie Crust:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled, plus more for the pie plate
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling out the dough
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water
- Cut each stick of butter into 8 pieces, and refrigerate until needed. Place the flour, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl, and mix to combine.
- Add the chilled butter. Using a pastry blender, incorporate the butter into the flour mixture; the mixture should resemble coarse meal with small pieces of butter, the size of small peas, remaining visible.
- Drizzle 2 tablespoons ice water over the flour-butter mixture, and blend. Repeat with an additional 2 tablespoons water. At this point, you may have to add more water; when a handful of dough squeezed together just hold it’s shape, you’ve added enough. If the dough crumbles, continue incorporating water, 1 tablespoons at a time, checking the consistency after each additional tablespoon.
- Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface. Divide into two equal pieces, and place on two separate sheets of plastic wrap. Flatten, and form two disks. Wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
- Lightly dust a clean, dry work surface with flour. Place the chilled dough in the center of the work surface, and dist the dough as well as the rolling pin with flour. Position the rolling pin on the center of the disk, and begin rolling the dough away from you. Give the disk a quarter turn, and roll again. Continue turning and rolling until you have an even 1/8 inch thickness. Turning the dough as you roll will prevent it from sticking to the work surface. A dry pastry brush is handy to remove any excess flour during and after the rolling process.
- Lightly butter (or spray) the pie plate. To minimize stretching when moving the dough, roll it around the pin, lift up, and unroll over the buttered pie plate. Using your fingers, gently pat the dough into place. Trim any excess dough with a paring knife or kitchen shears, leaving a 1 inch overhang.
- After you’ve filled the pie plate with filling, roll the top crust as you did above. Place gently on top of the filling, join edges together and crimp to seal the edges.
Apple Pie Filling
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 3 Tbs all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 6 to 7 cups thinly sliced peeled tart apples
- 1 Tbs lemon juice
- Dough for double-crust pie
- 1 Tbs butter
- 1 large egg white
- Additional sugar
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, combine sugars, flour and spices; set aside. In a large bowl, toss apples with lemon juice. Add sugar mixture; toss to coat.
- Add filling to a pie plate lined with pie crust dough (above recipe). Dot with butter. Place top pie crust dough over filling. Trim, seal and flute edge. Cut slits in the top. Beat egg white until foamy; brush over crust. Sprinkle with sugar. Cover edge loosely with foil.
- Bake 25 minutes. Remove foil; bake until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly, 20-25 minutes longer. Cool on a wire rack.
- Serve with a couple of medium cheddar cheese slices on the side.
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