Open Faced Apple Pie

I've always loved to make pies. I'm not sure when I started building my pies open faced, I just remember loving the way it looked, cooked and tasted the first time I made it. Don't get me wrong, I still love making traditional two crusted apple pies or lattice crusted fruit pies, but when you don't have the luxury of the time it takes, this open faced pie is the easiest and most delicious way to do it. I think of making pies as improvisational music, depending on the flavor of the apple. If it's a very sweet apple, I use less sugar and if it's tart or tasteless, I use a little more. Everyone loves pie, so no one in my family complained when I experimented with this recipe.

Crust
Ingredients:
1 cup cold unbleached white flour or bread flour (use whatever flour you like, these work best for this recipe)
5 Tbsp. cold butter
4 Tbsp. ice cold water
pinch of salt
egg wash (optional)
dash of turbinado brown sugar crystals (optional)

Place flour in a bowl and place in freezer for 5 minutes. In a food processor add cold flour, cold butter and salt. Pulse a few times. Add ice cold water 1 Tbsp. at a time, pulsing in between each Tbsp. until all four are added. DO NOT OVER PULSE. Dump into the cold bowl that was holding the flour and mix together with your hands until it forms a ball. Wrap in saran wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Pie Filling
Ingredients:
4-6 apples depending on size (Macintosh, Granny Smith or Honey Crisp are my favorite)
1/4 (+/-) cup sugar + 1 Tbsp. brown sugar (total amount of sugar depends on if the apples are sweet, tart or tasteless)
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. allspice
dash of fresh ground nutmeg
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
dabs of butter

Peel and slice apples thinly and place in a bowl. In a measuring cup add remaining dry ingredients and mix together with a fork. Add to sliced apples and toss together ending with the lemon juice and toss again. Set aside.

Take crust ball out of fridge and place on a floured hard surface. Roll out dough with rolling pin until about 1/8" thick or about 14" in diameter. Place the pie crust in a slightly greased 12" pie plate with the remaining 2" hanging over the sides. (Don't worry about cracks on the edge of the pie crust, it's ok, you're off the hook with this open faced style of pie. If you want a neater looking pie, then once your crust is rolled out, trim the edges so they look clean.

Place filling into pie crust and top with dabs of butter. Fold and overlap remaining pie crust so that there is a hole in the middle, also known as a Galette. These next two steps are optional, but I like to make an egg wash using egg white and brush on pie crust, then sprinkle with large turbinado brown sugar crystals, if you so desire. Bake at 375 derees for about 30 minutes. Shortly after you see juice bubbling out of the pie, you know it's done. I like to let a little bit of the juices cook into the pie crust and pie plate to ensure a delicious syrupy finish. Let cool and serve warm with homemade cinnamon ice cream (coming soon). Enjoy!