Vegan Apple Pie with Uber-Flaky Crust (Martha Stewart Paints "Sea Glass" in My Kitchen!)

It should come as no surprise that next to cake, pie holds the title second (sometimes first) closest to my heart. The art of making a pie is so much more involved than cake. At least it is to me. There is a double reward when pie is complete: pie filling AND pie crust. I am a huge crust fanatic. I admit it here for the first time that I have been known to sneak into my leftover pies to rip apart the crust leaving behind vestiges of filling scattered about cherishing big, crumbly, flaky baked dough. Maybe I should just bake a shell within a shell within a shell? Okay, maybe that would take me down the "shortbread" cookie road. I am thinking really hard on this right now. 

I baked this pie for my friend the other night enlisting Dr.Thyme's help with the slicing of apples. (H-e-l-lo, have you ever tried teaching your husband how to use a mandolin slicer only to stand back in horror as he--big, clumsy hands and all--tries accomplishing what you think should be a fairly "easy-husband-sous-chef" sort of job?). That was me on Saturday. I kept the phone close at hand for my 911 panic call. But he somehow managed to mandolin slice about eight apples. (I leave the peel on--I like the peel.)

About four in the afternoon--I had to get this pie into the oven quickly or it would not be set in time for dessert. I had made my pie dough early in the day--using the Julia Childs flaky pie crust (from Baking with Julia cookbook. Just google it--the recipe has been used over and over again). This is hands down the best pie crust recipe around. I have tried them all. I made a pie in spring using this Julia crust recipe and the results are the same--irresistable, flaky, sneak-in-and-tear-it-off-the-filling-edible! 

I also had the pleasure of using my pie weights for the first time to bake the bottom half of the crust first. This worked just "alright"--I used to use a method of baking the bottom pie crust by placing a layer of tin foil over the crust, then placing another pie plate inside the one with the crust and baking it. I think to pie-weights or not-to-pie weights is a personal decision. I leave that up to you. But I would never bake a pie of any kind without first baking the bottom crust first or you'll have mush.

So I also wanted to share with you my new kitchen. Well, it's not exactly new. My home projects last week consisted of re-painting my kitchen to a brighter non-Seasonal-Affective-Disorder color. Because I suffer from SAD something fierce, I must seek the "light" out in all things in my life for the next four months. Plus, I peeled wallpaper from my master bath and re-painted it. (OMG! and no I did NOT put up the wall paper--previous occupants had done so--and I will NEVER buy a house again that has been wall-papered nearly to death!) This was an all-day job. Cripes, I cursed the whole way through the peeling, trust me. There was a pile of wallpaper in my bathroom at least a foot deep. Then I painted the walls. No biggie there--I love to paint. The result was fab for both rooms.

I knew Martha had a new line of paints at Home Depot. Finally, I thought--a woman's touch in the painting department! (I am a loyal Martha fan, though I never wrote to her in prison, my thoughts were always with her.) I waited until just the right moment to seek her color therapy out (when Dr. Thyme was out of town, of course!). I perused her palatte and my eye immediately landed on "Sea Glass" or Sea Foam Green (for those of you in the textile world--this color has always been called Sea Foam Green). You can buy testers of  color for about three bucks. I did this and painted away on my wall. I was sold! The naming of this Martha Stewart color Sea Glass is perfect because that is EXACTLY what it looks like: sea glass. Who doesn't love sea glass? I just fell in love with it! It has added such charm and "lightness" to my a-number-one area of occupancy that I am smitten as heck with my decision. Plus, the added benefit was that the "godforbid-who-would-pick-sea-foam-green-for-countertops" struggle I have had for nearly seven years over my kitchen seems to now be in perfect harmony with my new walls. (Scroll up to see the finished pie sitting on my counters--see? Aren't my walls the perfect compliment?) The nice thing about this color is that because I have a neutral color in my curtains and brown accent in my furniture--this color is not as shocking and strikes a very nice, very retro, yet modern feel. I researched this color choice after bringing the tester home. I thought--will this be too, I don't know. . . "institutional" looking? Will I dread the look after. Fear not. According to some color design experts, sea foam green is now becoming the new "neutral"--who knew? I just love the color is all. I know for some, painting is intimidating. Not for me. I love playing with color--and after all, painting is a small investement that offers a dramatic change. I'm taking consultations now if anyone's interested--tee, hee!

So now, the pie. Essentially for the filling--again, once you have the crust down pat--whatever your heart desires, you may throw into the shell. Just be sure to toss your fruit of choice around with about three tablespoons of flour for thickening the juice as it cooks, plus a squirt of lemon juice and salt--these items combined will bring any pie to its fullest potential. Or you could use corn starch--I prefer to use flour. So to break down the recipe:

Vegan Apple Pie with Uber-Flaky Crust

1 double pie crust recipe (Julia Childs, my hands-down favorite)

8-9 apples unpeeled, seeded and sliced thin

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground ginger (if you want to amp up the ginger, throw in some crystallized ginger)

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 teaspooon fine sea salt

2-3 tablespoons of flour

Preheat the oven to 425. Prepare your crust for a 9" pie pan, and pre-bake bottom crust for about 25 minutes with tin foil and pie weights. Remove from oven and allow to cool. In a super large bowl, place all the sliced apples then toss in the remaining ingredients and allow to sit for about 20 minutes. (Do this to allow the apples to soften up a bit, plus to extract that yummy apple juice--keep the juice!) Next, fill your pie crust with the apples/juice and sort of mound high in the middle. Place rolled out second dough over the apples, being sure to crimp the edges. (And if the lower crust has shrunk some--mine always does--no problem. Push the top dough down until it is touching the lower dough and sort of pinch together--it will be fine.) Make about six slashes in the top dough crust to allow the steam to escape during baking. (It's so much prettier when the pie is piled high in the middle.) Place the pie on a cookie sheet--to catch any juices that spill out. Bake pie at 425 for 20 minutes, then lower the heat to 375 and bake an additional 30-35 minutes (until crust turns golden brown). Remove from oven and allow to cool for at least two hours. Serve with vegan vanilla ice cream--YUM!