Apple pie with caramel

Nowadays you can always find apples in a supermarket all year round, but for me apples mean autumn. Do you love apples? I do! And especially I love the smell of an apple pie from my oven. There is something magical about this smell, it gives me such a cozy and relaxing feeling, maybe because it reminds me about my childhood and about all delicious pies that my mom baked for me. Nothing can compare to that!
These days I have to do all baking by myself, but I don't mind, really... I don't! Because I know... I will get a reward: a slice of my perfect apple pie, served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce on top.

INGREDIENTS:
For the pie crust:
400 g all purpose flour + some more for dusting
1 tbsp powdered sugar
pinch of salt
180 g cold butter (cut it in cubes and put in the freezer for 10-15 mins)
75-100 ml ice water
2 tsp lemon juice (ice cold)
1 egg (cold, from the fridge)
1 tbsp granulated sugar, to sprinkle the top
For the egg wash
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp milk

For the filling: 
5-6 large apples (Jonagold, Golden Delishes or Granny Smith) peeled, cored and thingly sliced
70g caster sugar 
1 tbsp water
30g butter at room temperature
3tbsp limoncello (can be omitted)
1/2 vanilla pod, split, seeds scraped out
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
------------------------------------------------
1 tbsp tapioca flour
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp almond flour
Special equipment:
Loose base tart tin/pan (24 cm in diameter) like this.
Leaf plunger cutter like this.

For the additional caramel sauce (Caramel Fleur De Sel):
200g caster sugar
50g water
1 vanilla pod, split, seeds scraped out
200 g heavy cream (32-35%)
3 g fleur de sel
100g butter

DIRECTIONS FOR THE PIE:

1. Pulse flour, sugar and salt in a food processor for a few seconds until combined. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal,  about 10-12 pulses. Add the egg and lemon juice and pulse 2-3 times. Add 3 tbsp. ice water and pulse again (2-3 times). The dough should hold together but should not be sticky.  If it is still crumbly, add more water (about 1 tsp. at a time), pulsing 2-3 times after each addition. Put all dough on a work surface, divide in half and flatten into 2 disks. Wrap disks in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight. 

IMPORTANT: to get a crispy and flaky crust all ingredients should be really cold. 

2. Meanwhile, make the filling. In a large bowl stir together the apples, limoncello and the cinnamon (if you don't have limoncello, you can use lemon juice instead). 

In the meantime, in a deap saucepan stir together sugar, water and scraped vanilla pod. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat. If sugar crystals start forming on the sides of the pan, use a wet brush to wipe them back into the mixture. Don't stir - just swirl the pan to mix. Continue to boil until the mixture is light brown color. Whisk the warm butter until smooth. Add the apples into the caramel and cook, stirring occasionaly, until the apples are just tender, about 15-20 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.

3. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out half of the dough into a 27-30 cm (12-inch) round about 3 mm (1/8 inch) thick. Line the pie pan with the dough, trim off the excess of the dough, gently pressing the dough into the bottom and the sides of the pan. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. 

4. Roll out the second dough disk and cut out 14 long stripes for a lattice pattern. For additional decoration cut from the remaining dough 25-26 leaves, using a leaf plunger cutter. If necessary reroll the dough scraps to make more leaves. While working with the lattice top, keep the leaves in the refrigerator .
 

5. Take out the pie pan from the refrigerator. Mix together tapioca flour, cornstarch and almond flour and dust with this mixture the bottom of the pie. Pour the apple filling to the prepared lined pan and assemble the lattice top. Trim the edges and press the top and bottom crusts together to seal (you can use a fork for it). Take out the leaves from the refregirator, brush them with egg wash and gently press them onto the edges of the pie crust, overlapping the leaves slightly. Brush the lattice top with egg wash and sprinkle with some granulated sugar.
Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F).

6. Place the pie pan on the preheated baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 180°C (350°F) and bake for additional 40-50 minutes until the crust is crisp and golden brown and the filling is bubbling through the lattice top. Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let it cool for 30 minutes in a pan, then remove the pie from the pan and let it cool completely (about 2-3 hours). 

Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.

DIRECTIONS FOR THE CARAMEL SAUCE (CARAMEL FLEUR DE SEL):

1. In a deep saucepan stir together sugar, water and scraped vanilla pod. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat. If sugar crystals start forming on the sides of the pan, use a wet brush to wipe them back into the mixture. Don't stir - just swirl the pan to mix. Continue to boil until the mixture is light brown color. 

2. In another pan heat the cream to a boiling point. Reduce the heat to a minimum and keep it warm. 3. Once the sugar mixture reaches a light brown color, reduce the temperature. Be careful not to burn it. Swirl the saucepan to check for the desired colour (it should be deep amber). When you get the color you want, mix in the cream a little in a time. Be really careful, beware of splashing! The mixture will splutter, bubble and increase in volume (because of this it's important to use a deep saucepan). Keep stirring over the low heat until the caramel is smooth about 2-3 minutes.

4. Remove saucepan from heat and mix in the fleur de sel. Transfer to a heatproof bowl and leave to cool about 15-20 minutes.

5. Mix in the warm butter using a blender until smooth and glossy. Transfer to a glass jar and store  for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

NOTE: The caramel will become hard in the refrigerator, so if you need it like a sauce for a pie, pancakes or ice cream, just warm it up in a microwave for a few seconds.

Enjoy, toetjeaddicted