Apple Ombré Pie
- Total Time
- 1 ½ hours, plus chilling
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
Advertisement
Ingredients
- Perfect Pie Crust, prepared for a fruit pie and chilled
- 2medium red apples, such as McIntosh or Cortland
- 2medium pink apples, such as Jonagold, Gala or Fuji
- 2medium yellow-pink or green-pink apples, such as Golden Delicious or Northern Spy
- 2medium green apples, such as Granny Smith
- Lemon juice, as needed
- 1tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
- ¼ cup/50 grams granulated sugar
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Pinch of fine sea salt
- Egg wash (1 large egg mixed with 1 tablespoon water)
Opt out or contact us anytime. See our Privacy Policy.
Opt out or contact us anytime. See our Privacy Policy.
Preparation
- Step 1
On a lightly floured surface and using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out a disk of dough into a circle about ¼-inch thick. Starting at one end, gently roll up the dough onto the rolling pin. Unfurl the dough over a 9-inch pie plate, preferably ceramic, and press it in lightly, making sure it’s lining the plate.
- Step 2
Trim so that there’s about ½ inch of excess dough hanging over the edge of the pie plate. (If the dough feels warm, refrigerate it for 15 minutes.) Tuck the excess dough under itself so it is flush with the edge of the pie plate; leave the pie like this for a straight-edge finish, or crimp as desired. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, and up to 2 hours.
- Step 3
Place a rack on the bottom shelf of the oven, and place a baking stone, if you have one, on the rack. Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Use a small brush to evenly paint egg wash on the edge of the crust. Cut a square of parchment paper and use it to line the crust. Fill with pie weights (or dried beans) up to the top edge. Place the plate on a baking sheet lined with parchment or foil.
- Step 4
Transfer the baking sheet to the oven, placing it directly on the baking stone if using. Bake crust until the outer edge is just starting to turn golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Remove the parchment and pie weights, and continue to bake until the base appears set, 2 to 4 minutes more. If the dough puffs up anywhere, you can puncture it with a fork. Cool the crust completely. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees
- Step 5
While the crust cools, prepare the apples. Core and quarter each apple, then cut each quarter into slices about ⅛-inch thick. (See Note for tips on slicing.) Keep them together as best as possible and arrange them by color on a baking sheet. Squeeze lemon juice over the apples to prevent browning.
- Step 6
Arrange the apples in the pie crust in an ombré effect, working from dark red to pink to yellow-pink to green. To do this, grab a few apples in one color at a time, and fan them out in your hand. Place them skin side up inside the crust, arranging them relatively tightly to ensure maximum coverage. You can cut or trim pieces smaller to fill in at the edges as needed. Repeat until the crust is full of apples. (Use the leftovers for another purpose.) Dot the surface with the butter and chill the pie while you heat the oven.
- Step 7
In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar, cinnamon and salt. When the oven has reached temperature, liberally sprinkle all of the cinnamon-sugar mixture over the top of the apples, in between them and around the edges. Use a small brush to evenly paint egg wash on any exposed crust.
- Step 8
Transfer the baking sheet to the oven, placing it directly on the baking stone if using. Bake until the crust is golden brown and the apples are soft, 25 to 30 minutes; start checking the pie after 20 minutes of baking to be sure it’s not cooking too quickly, which will cause the apples to brown too much and weaken the ombré effect. Let cool on a rack at least 20 minutes before serving. The pie is best the day it is baked.
- To get clean, very thin slices of apple, take a quarter of an apple and lay it on the cutting board on one of its cut sides. Holding the knife at a 45-degree angle, cut out the core in a single motion. The apples now have a flat base to lie flat on the cutting board, which makes it easier to slice them thinly.
Private Notes
Comments
Why does the written recipe have detailed instructions for pre-baking the crust, but the video shows the sliced apples being put directly into a raw crust? Something is not right here.
TIPS 1. Brush crust with egg wash and layer of raspberry jam. I used a store-bought crust and did not blind bake 2. 8 apples is EXCESSIVE. I packed the slices tightly, but still only used 5 apples 3. It's easier to get thin slices if you cut rectangularly around the core in four slices 4. ADD A FILLING!!!! Heat a mixture of butter, brown sugar, honey, vanilla extract, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger and spread around pie ISSUE Extra liquid post-bake is easy to get out with a baster
This looks better than it eats. Apples are a bit dry due to the spaces between them — and I packed ‘em pretty good — and the crust and apple never quite marry the way they do when they lay on top of one another. I also had a good 3 apples’ worth of slices left over. I’ll make Ina Garten’s apple tart with them, and save this recipe for Instagram. It is lovely to look at.
Came out great. The different apples have different flavors adding subtlety. Agree that better to put a layer of apples on the bottom to bring the apples up to the top of my Emile Henry pan. They shrink with cooking. Would have been better to call it a tart rather than a pie--you have to like the idea of these different apple slices retaining their texture and flavor. On my list of favorites.
Agree with the others RE dryness and flavor. Made as written, not in the same league had I taken the same ingredients and made a traditional apple pie. Pretty though. Not making this again
Just apples in a pie crust
Advertisement