Vermont Maple Apple Pie

The pie that'll leave your guests begging for your recipe, and it's all thanks to one secret ingredient — maple sugar.

This apple pie is hands down my favorite go-to pie for any occasion. The tart crisp apple slices make it perfect for the summer, bourbon vanilla makes it perfect for fall, warm seasonings make it perfect for the winter, and maple sugar makes it perfect for maple season (aka Spring)!

This recipe was born during 2020. After weeks of watching baking videos, I finally decided to give a hand at my first pie and though it had turned out good, I knew it could be better. Many many pies later, the Vermont Maple Apple Pie was born. Having grown up in a first generation Greek and Italian household, I never had the experience of grandma's "100 year old American Apple Pie" passed from generation to generation, but this? This will become the pie that'll start a generational tradition in our household — and hopefully yours too!

What equipment you'll need:

Food processor
Pie dish
Rolling pin (a chilled wine bottle works great too!)
Cookie sheet that your pie dish can sit on
Large bowl
Plastic wrap

Dough Ingredients:

400g or 2.5cups of organic unbleached all purpose flour

2 tbsp granulated white sugar

2.5 salted sticks of butter (grass fed is best)

1/4 cup ice water

1 tsp salt

Extra flour for work bench

Filling Ingredients:

6-8 apples of your choice (make sure they’re apples that are for baking so they won’t go mushy)

1/4 of a lemon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cardamom

1/4 tsp bourbon vanilla extract

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

1/4 cup Vermont maple sugar

Step 1: Dough

Put 12.5 oz (400 g) all purpose flour, 1 tsp salt, and 2tbsp sugar in food processor and pulse to mix.
Add 2.5 sticks (15 tbsp) of COLD cubed grass fed butter to food processor and pulse to loosely combine.
While continuously on-off pulsing the dough, slowly pour in ice water until it becomes a shaggy dough that looks like wet sand. (You can use more of less water depending).
Flour a work surface and turn out dough. Press mixture into a disk shape with as little to no cracks as possible. Flour top of disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Put in fridge for at least 2 hours to rest.

*Dough Notes:

- don’t over mix your dough otherwise gluten will form and will create a tough chewy pie crust.

- be sure that butter is cold as it will ensure a flaky crust.

- when working with dough, work quickly so the butter with the dough won’t melt.

Step 2: Filling

While dough chills, peel and slice apples being sure to remove seeds and core. (I highly recommend investing in an apple peeler, corer, and slicer such as this one!)
Add the juice of half a lemon to apple slices to prevent browning/ bruising.
Add 1/4 cup maple sugar, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp cardamom, 1/4 tsp vanilla, and 2tbsp corn flour and mix well by hand to coat each apple slice. Set aside.

Step 3: Preheat oven

Preheat oven with cookie tray inside oven to 400°F.

Step 4: Bottom of pie crust

Take dough out of fridge and place on floured work surface.
Flour rolling pin and top of dough disk.
Get your anger of the day out on the dough and smack it with rolling pin 2-3 times, rotate 90° and smack another 2-3 times.
Split dough in half and set 1 half aside and cover with cloth or cling wrap.
Roll out the other half of dough to about 4 inches wider than pie dish.
Gently roll dough onto rolling pin and place in pie dish and trim off excess. Set aside.

Step 5: Fill pie

Drain most of the liquid out of the bowl of sugared apple slices and discard. (If you want a very wet filling, leave the liquid in. If you want a very dry filling like a tart, take all liquid out. I personally like an in between and remove about 3/4 of liquid.)
Fill pie with apple slices and press down apple slices to flatten out apple slices a little bit.
*Optional: sprinkle with extra maple sugar.
Set aside.

Step 6: Top of pie crust

Take the other half of dough, re-flour surfaces as needed, and roll out to about the width of pie dish. Cut into 10 1inch strips.
Place strips down to make a lattice, being sure to alternate an under over pattern.
Crimp edges of pie with fork to seal.
*Optional: With any left over dough, create leaves and decorative pieces to put on the edge of crust.
Glaze the entire pie with watered down milk (or any high fat nondairy milk such as oat milk).

Step 7: Bake

Place pie crust guard or tinfoil over the edges of the pie crust to prevent burning.
Place pie dish directly on top of hot cookie tray. Bake for 30-45 min until golden brown. Be sure to keep an eye on the pie once it hits 30min to ensure it won’t burn.