In The Wild Heart Kitchen

European Spiced Apple Pie is baked with apples thinly shingled together with spices, raw sugar, and wrapped in a short crust pastry.

Do you feel that in the air? At long last, it’s officially pie season. When I think of apple pie I don’t think of a traditional American apple pie…you know what I’m talking about? Super sweet, overly syrupy apples. No no. I think of my Bubby and her pie, which she always called cake. Bubby’s apple pie was always baked in the same glass dish that had a thousand little scratches from a thousand knife cuts from cutting a thousand “just one more slivers” of a thousand of apple pies. Just like Bubby, her apple pie recipe was from Europe; lightly sweetened, spiced, bare bones, and allllll about the apples.

European Spiced Apple Pie is the dessert of my childhood and of my dreams. This pie, the making of it, the memories of it… is the catalyst of my baking career. As a child, I sat at Bubby’s round kitchen table on the squeaky plastic chairs and watch her peel apples with a pairing knife. She peeled an entire apple with one, long, curling peel. When I became old enough to use a knife, she taught me how to peel like that. We made a game of who could peel the thinnest, longest apple skin ring. She would always win, naturally.

Why is European Spiced Apple Pie So Delicious?

What makes this pie special is there is nothing special about it. European Spiced Apple Pie is made the old fashioned way; pure and simple. Apples thinly shingled together with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and a dash of raw sugar. My version of Bubby’s European Spiced Apple Pie is made with a basic butter short crust pastry dough (based on the dough from Mushka in the Market. I add cardamom, clementine zest and vanilla extract to the apples to give them just a little boost. This pie is flavorful yet incredibly delicate. The apples are enveloped in a basic short crust pastry with a fork-pricked top. No egg wash, no crimping, flourishes, or fancy bits. Just delicious in it’s most basic form.

Print Recipe

European Spiced Apple Pie

European Spiced Apple Pie is baked with apples thinly shingled together with spices, raw sugar, and wrapped in a short crust pastry.

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time40 minutes mins

Cooling20 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 20 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American, European

Keyword: apple, pie

Servings: 8

Author: Johanna Rothenberg

Ingredients

For the Short Crust Pastry:

• 170 grams all purpose flour
• 30 grams powdered sugar
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• 113 grams cold butter in small cubes then frozen
• ½ vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons ice water

For the Filling:

• 1 ¾ – 2 pounds apples peeled and sliced as thinly as possible
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
• ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 tablespoons raw sugar
• ½ teaspoon clementine zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

For the Pastry:

• In the bowl of a food processor, blitz the flour, powdered sugar, and kosher salt.
• Add the cold, cubed butter. Blitz a few, short whirls (a second each). The dough should be crumbly.
• Add 2 tablespoons of water and blitz the dough with two or three, short whirls. The dough should be crumbly but beginning to bind together. The dough shouldn't be dry or look floury.
• Quickly tip the dough out of the processor onto your work surface. Use your hands to finish forming the dough into a flat disk.
• Tightly wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour. The dough can keep in the fridge for 2 days or in the freezer up to 2 months.
• Butter/spray a 6 1/2 inch (18 cm) round springform pan.
• Lightly flour your counter. Unwrap the pastry dough, place it on the floured counter and lightly dust flour over it. Let the dough rest for a few minutes until slightly pliable but still very cold.
• Roll your pastry crust out to 1/8 inch thick round. Be patient with your dough. Make sure it's rolled out in even thickness.
• Transfer the dough into the springform pan. (You can do this by flouring your rolling pin, set it on top of the dough (in the center) and flip the dough over it. Use the rolling pin to lift the dough.)
• Carefully fit the dough into the pan, gently pressing the dough into the crevasses. If the dough rips, patch it back together with some excess dough from the outer edges.
• Using a sharp pairing knife, trim off the remaining dough from the top of the pan, form the excess dough into a disk, wrap it back in plastic wrap and place in the freezer.
• Place the springform pan in the freezer until ready to use.

To Assemble the Pie:

• Preheat the oven to 400 °F
• In a bowl, toss the thinly sliced apples with the cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, cloves and raw sugar. Toss well to fully coat the apples.
• Add the clementine zest and vanilla extract. Toss well to fully coat the apples.
• Remove the spring form pan and the extra dough from the freezer.
• Pour the apples into the springform pan. Make sure they are evenly spread. The apples should fill the pan 3/4 of the way to the top. If they do not, peel and thinly slice another apple to add in.
• Lightly flour the counter and carefully roll out the excess pastry to about 1/8 inch thick. Transfer the dough to the top of the pan and tuck the dough in with a 1/2 inch overlap. Using a sharp pairing knife, trim off the excess dough and pinch the dough cover and the base dough together to seal.
• Cut two small slits in the center of the pie and carefully use a fork to stamp all around the top of the pie to create steam holes.
• Place the springform pan on a cookie sheet and bake for 38-40 minutes, until the edges of the pastry and golden brown, and the top of the pastry is golden, and feels dry and firm to the touch.
• Remove the pie from the oven and let it cool completely before slicing.

Notes

This pie is best eaten the day it’s made, as the pastry crust base may soften a touch once stored. However, it is absolutely delicious if you store it in the fridge covered in aluminum foil

For this recipe, I use Macintosh and Ginger Gold apples for a balance of sweetness and texture. The apples you use does predict the final taste and texture. You can also use Cortland and Macintosh. I would not recommend Granny Smith apples.