This rustic apple pie is baked in a skillet, with spiral sliced apples, a delicious brown sugar and butter filling and pretty dough leaves scattered on top. You can use your favourite homemade pie dough or store-bought.
1pie crust , homemade or store-bought (plus more if you want to make )
Filling:
1/2cupsalted butter
3Tablespoonsall-purpose flour
1/4cupwater
1/2cupwhite granulated sugar
1/2cuplight brown sugar, packed
1/2teaspooncinnamon
1teaspoonvanilla
For glaze:
1egg, separated, keeping yolk and white separate
Optional: Turbinado sugar, coarse or regular white sugar, for sprinkling over crust before baking
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Instructions
Preheat oven to 350° F.
Prepare the apples: If using a peeler/corer/spiralizer tool, prepare 4-5 apples, then cut in half from top to bottom, making two halves. If doing by hand, peel apples then cut in half from top to bottom. Use a teaspoon to scoop out and discard all the core. Lay apple half flat on a cutting board and use a sharp knife to cut in to thin, even slices. Keep each sliced half-apple together and place as one group in the pie.
In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour and stir to form a paste. Add the water, white sugar and brown sugar and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to low and let simmer while you prepare your pie.
Meanwhile, grease a cast iron skillet and place the bottom pie crust dough in, coming up the sides to the top. Brush bottom of dough with egg white. Arrange apples over the crust, cut side down and varying the direction with each one to make a nice patter. Place as many halves as you can fit perfectly flat. Cut a few in to smaller pieces to fill in any large gaps. Add the cinnamon and vanilla to the brown sugar/butter mixture and stir in. Pour the sugar and butter mixture over the apples. Fold any excess dough on the sides inward.
If making leaves, cut several leaves out of extra pie dough using a cookie cutter. Scatter over top here and there. Brush the leaves and top outside edge of the crust with the reserved egg yolk that has been lightly beaten with a splash of water. If desired, sprinkle with a bit of turbinado or white sugar over the dough edge/leaves. Place pie on a baking sheet to catch any overflow.
Bake for 50 - 55 minutes in the pre-heated oven, until apples are soft when a sharp knife is inserted. You may want to check near the end of the cooking time and cover the pie with aluminum foil to prevent the crust from browning too much.