Sour Cream Apple Pie

I started celebrating pie day when I moved into the dorms in college and somebody told me it was impossible to make a decent pie in the dorm room kitchenette. (Looking back my friends may have been playing me for a pie.) As I love making pie, this became something I did every year. This year, I was planning on making a sour-cream blackberry pie that I came up with last year, and one more (left up to fate). This is the second recipe I made, a sour cream apple pie that came out rich, decadent, and absolutely stuffed full of apples. I hope you enjoy it!

There are three parts to this pie; the base crust, the apple filling, and the crunchy topping. I'm going to list all the ingredients you'll need for the entire recipe here so you can make sure your kitchen is completely prepped for this adventure. The individual ingredients for each section will also be listed later on.

Crust:

2 1/4 cups flour

1 cup butter

1/3 cup vegetable shortening

8 Tablespoons water

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

Filling:

1 1/4 cup sour cream (get the full fat kind, you're already making an absurd dessert, the few calories shaved off by fat free will only hurt the flavor)

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla

7-8 cups cored, thinly sliced apples (Mine had golden delicious, granny smith, fuji, jhonnygold, and maybe a honeycrisp in it - use any mix of apples you like. Also, this is a lot of apples...I stuck with 7 cups and still wasn't sure they'd all fit)

Topping:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

6 tablespoon butter, melted

Pie Pan: Make sure you've at least got one of the deep dish pyrex ones (that's what I used). Deeper would work well too.

Every pie maker you meet will have their favorite crust recipe, the one that's their go to, that they can make with their eyes shut because they've made it so many times. Similarly, almost every new baker will lament that they've tried a fail proof pie crust recipe only to have it flop completely. But rest assured, the more you make pie crusts the better you will get -eventually you'll just be able to tell if a crust is to damp or to dry. This recipe is my go to and is fairly straight forward even for beginners.

This is a recipe for a double crust - I used the other half for making hand pies that a friend requested.

2 1/4 cups flour

1 cup cold butter cut into small cubes

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

6-8 tablespoons ice cold water

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and toss the butter over the top.

There are three ways to combine the butter with the flour mixture: Use a pair of knives or a pastry cutter to cut the butter in. Rub the butter into the flour with your hands. Use a food processor to pulse the butter in. You want the butter to be mostly incorporated and the largest chunks to be about the size of peas.

Add 6 tablespoons of the cold water

This part's easy - preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Making the filling is pretty straight forward, just make sure you've got a really big bowl (all of those apples will have to fit in it).

1 1/4 cup sour cream

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla

7+ cups cored, thinly sliced apples (mixed variety)

• Place all of the ingredients except the apples into your giant bowl and mix until smooth (you don't want any flour lumps in there).
• Add the apples and toss until the apples are coated in the sour cream mixture

This is a fun part. Now you get to try to fit all of those apples into the pie crust.

Again, there are many ways of filling a pie. Lots of people just dump the apples in and pat with their hands to get a fairly even layer.

Personally, I find that my pies don't sink as during baking if I layer the apples in as tightly as possible. This is more time consuming, you are individually packing each slice in to rings that fill the pie as densely as possible. But this pie was at least an inch taller than my pie dish so I'd recommend at packing at least the upper bit by hand so your apples don't end up all over your counter top.

Also, make sure to scrap the bowl for any sour cream mixture left behind. That's going to bake into a custard and you're going to want it in there.

Place your apple filled crust on a cookie sheet and pack on the center rack for 15 minutes.

Reduce the oven heat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for another 30 minutes.

This topping makes a lot of topping. So if you like your pie lighter on the sugar, I suggest halving this.

1 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

6 tablespoons butter, melted

Place all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

When your timer goes off, remove the pie from the oven but don't turn the oven off. Press the crumble topping evenly onto the pie, trying not to burn yourself. When you've got the topping on, put the pie back in the oven for another 20 minutes, until the top is turning golden brown.

Remove the pie from the oven and allow it to cool for 2 hours. Personally, I like my custard pies chilled - for that you have to refrigerate the pie for an additional 2 hours or so - don't just stick the hot pie in your fridge. Let it cool on the counter first for a few hours, then put it in the fridge for a few more.

I served this pie with a dollop of homemade unsweetened whipped cream. The packed apples settle wonderfully in the sour cream custard resulting in a dense, filling, rich apple pie.

Warning: This recipe is super rich -small pieces are advised.

Please send me any questions or comments you may have and thanks for reading my first instructable!