This pie was born of necessity.
I completely forgot that I wanted to make it until just a couple of hours before we were due to leave for our friends’ house, and so instead of rolling out crusts I used two deep-dish frozen ones, flipping one upside-down to use as the top crust. The problem with this technique is that if the crust isn’t perfectly defrosted, it can stick to the aluminum while you’re flipping it, and sort of…break. Which is what happened to my crust. I would ordinarily fix this by rolling out the crust and starting over, but: no time.
Teeny-tiny (and crack-concealing) hearts to the rescue!
What you need:
4-5 cups apples, peeled and thinly sliced (I use a variety of kinds plucked from my list of the best apples for baking)
3/4 cup sugar (1/2 white, 1/2 brown)
3 tbsp flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp butter
2 unbaked deep-dish pie crust, defrosted
What You Do:
1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. In a large bowl, use your hands to mix the sugar, flour, and spices lightly through the apples.
3. Place the apple mixture into one deep-dish pie shell, and dot the butter in a few spots over the top.
4. Gently use your fingers to separate the second pie crust from the aluminum pan. Place gently over the top of the first pie crust and apples, so that it forms a top crust. Crimp the edges with the tines of a fork to secure, gently removing any excess crust and setting it aside to create your hearts.
5. Cut a hole in the top of the pie (or stab it a few times with a fork), arrange your hearts on top, and place on a foil-lined baking sheet.
6. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until golden brown.
Just flatten out the excess pie crust that you pulled off from around the edges, and use the tip of a sharp knife to cut out hearts of different sizes. Arrange in a pattern of your choice…or in a pattern dictated by the patchy parts of the top pie crust.
