Cooking Lesson #141 Brown Bag Apple Pie

It’s Pie Week

Brown Bag Apple Pie | photo: South Dakota Magazine

How you doin’? This is one of the more unusual pie recipes because it cooks in a brown bag. In our restaurants we made 5-inch, mini pies and presented them in a bag table side. 
 
The brown paper bag helps cook the apples long enough without over baking and over browning the crust, plus they stay juicier. Once the apples are cooked take the pie out of the bag to let the crust brown for a few minutes and get crisp. It's then plated right in the grease stained brown paper bag! Take it up a notch and serve the pie warm with vanilla ice cream.
 
The history of paper-bag-pie goes back to 1911, when a Londoner figured out that baking a pie in a paper bag helped steam the apples to tenderness--without burning the house down.
 
                      Use caution when placing the pie in the bag in your oven.
                           Be sure the bag is not touching any heating source.

Prep time: 45 minutes
Bake time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Cool time:  30 minutes
Yield: 5 to 8 servings (1 9-inch pie)
 
Ingredients
1 9-inch double crust pie crust

For the apple pie filling
5 or 6 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and thickly sliced
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1-1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Directions

1. On a work surface lightly dusted with flour, roll out the pie crust to a circle about 1/8-inch thick. Keep rolling until the circle is at least 2 inches larger than your pan. Line the pie pan with the dough, letting the edge hang over a bit. Roll out the second disk and place it on a sheet pan; chill it until you're ready to build your pie.
2. Arrange a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375⁰F.
3. In a medium bowl, toss the apple slices, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, vanilla, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg together.
4. Transfer the mixture to the pie shell and dot the top with the butter.
5. Brush the overhanging edges of the dough with water. Carefully cover the pie with the rolled-out top crust and pinch the edges together, turning them under all around to make a thick edge. To decorate the rim, press it all around with the back of a fork, or just pinch it to seal.
6. With a scissors, cut a few V-vents in the center.
7. Slide the pie into the brown paper bag and fold the top down. Staple bag shut and place it on a sheet pan. Bake for 1 hour.
8. Remove the pie from the oven and cut a large circle in top of the bag. Return to the oven and bake until the crust is golden brown, about 15 minutes more.
9. Let the pie cool at least 30 minutes before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature.

ChefSecret:  You can use a store-bought refrigerated or frozen crust or you can go all out and make my Perfect Crust from Cooking Lesson #139.

Covid-19 Quip of the Day: “Things have gotten so bad; The Treasure Island Casino in Las Vegas is now managed by Somali pirates.”
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