written 4/22/2024, updated 4/22/2024

What

Bourbon Apple Pie with vegan butter and neither milk nor eggs

Main Ingredients

Optional Ingredients and Supplies

Time and Servings

DOUGH: 20 minutes (dough prep) + 2 hours (refrigeration) + 20 minutes (rolling and shaping) = 2 hours, 40 minutes Total

FILLING: 10 minutes (Apple peel and core) + 20 minutes (filling cook) + 1.5 hours cooldown = 2 hours Total

BAKE: 5 minute (prep for oven) + 1 hour (bake) = 1.05 hours Total

Directions

Prepare

Dough

• Whisk Flour (2 cups), Sugar (2 Tbsp), Salt (optional ½ tsp), and Baking Powder (¼ tsp)
• Add half of Butter (4 Tbsp) and all of Shortening (2 Tbsp)
• Rub until Shortening not detectable
• Add rest of Butter (4 Tbsp) and work until pea-sized Butter pieces remain
• Mix in Ice Water (4 Tbsp) with fork or hands (optionally can do all of this with a few pulses of a food processor)
• Gradually add more of Ice Water (1 Tbsp at a time) only until dough sticks when squeezed (should look shaggy, not super smooth)
• Turn onto plastic wrap
• Shape into a disk
• Refrigerate until firm (~2 hours)
• OPTIONAL: For a more flaky crust READ THIS. Fold the dough in halves, thirds, or quarters, push down, then do it again. Refrigerate and let rest for about 30 minutes, then do it again. Don’t overdo it to the point where the dough is gummy and forms gluten, but it will make the crust flakier.

Filling

• Core and Slice Apples (optionally peel, too) into ~¼ inch slices
• Place into mixing bowl
• Add Lemon Juice (2 Tbsp) and Bourbon (¼ Cup), tossing it all together
• Melt Vegan Butter (2 Tbsp) in a saucepan or skillet
• Combine Apple Slices, Brown Sugar (⅓ Cup), Granulated Sugar (⅓ Cup), and Salt (pinch)
• Cook medium-high heat, stirring, until Apples soften (~5 minutes)
• Add Seasonings and adjust taste to your liking
• Continue cooking and stirring, until thickened (~10 min)
• Optionally, now mix in cornstarch/flour if you want it thickened stirring well to combine (be careful not to create clumps) and let simmer some more (~5 minutes)
• Taste and adjust again
• Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature

Baking

Oven will need to be preheated to 400F if you choose to bake right away and not refrigerate the assembled pie

Crust

• Divide dough in 2
• Form each into a ball
• Using a roller, roll first ball (bottom crust) to overfill the size of your baking dish and to desired thickness (I personally don’t like thick crusts)
• Dust with flour as needed
• Place into baking dish and push it to fill the form of the dish
• Optional: Pre-bake the crust after dimpling the crust with a fork or using baker’s weights on parchment paper for about 10-20 minutes (long-baking desserts like fruit filled pies generally don’t need to have prebaked crusts as they’ll bake while the filling simmers in the oven)
• Form the 2nd dough ball which will be the upper crust
• Optionally: cut into lattice strips if desired
• Spoon filling in
• Dot Vegan Butter (2 Tbsp) on top of the filling
• Lay the top crust over the filled pie
• Press the dough together to create the crust and cut out some steam holes (have fun here with decorations)
• If using lattice, go ahead and lay the desired pattern
• Optionally, refrigerate the assembled pie for about an hour or two

Bake

• If you haven’t done it, preheat the oven to 400F
• Brush on wash
• Make sure you didn’t forget to cut out venting holes
• Bake for about 1 hour
• Optional: Bake for 25 minutes, then cover the crust with foil so that it doesn’t burn
• Remove
• Let fully cool (~2 hours)
• Optional: Serve with Ice Cream

ENJOY!!

Pictures

Notes

If you have trouble with removing the core from an apple corer, all you have to do is use your thumb. I’ve tried digging at it with knives and chopsticks, and the thumb really works the best. You can remove the upper piece of the core if it’s being stubborn, and the rest will fly out like a bullet. Apple cores and peels are GREAT for the compost!

• I messed up on the bottom crust by not making it big enough. The top crust does NOT have to be as large as the bottom crust as I found, just needs to meet the bottom to seal in. Subsequently, my pie filling bubbled out
• I don’t like a lot of crust in general, so this doesn’t bother me. Should have done a lattice top, but was too lazy to take the extra steps
• As I mentioned in the instructions, apparently, long-baking pies like fruit filled pies really don’t need to have a pre-baked bottom crust. I just don’t like mushy pie bottoms. If you do, that’s cool
• Toaster Ovens (I always use one) like mine tend to want to cook faster than a large traditional oven, so make sure you don’t let yours burn like I did. I’d already set it at 45 minutes rather than 1 hour, but it still came out burnt