Oh my, oh my pie, oh my apple pie. I am Dutch, so I guess this makes it a Dutch Apple Pie. Kidding aside, I wouldn’t know how to define a Dutch Apple Pie. I wonder, why some Apple Pies are even called Dutch Apple Pies. Is there a something special about a Dutch apple pie, other than that it is made in the Netherlands or by a Dutch person? This Dutch Apple Pie recipe is my go-to version, is my tradition.
I certainly cannot tell you much about the world’s apple pies, even though I ate a lot of apple pie in my life. When you Google Dutch Apple Pie, Wikipedia will reference an old book and the description is something like this. A crust and a top, all made of the same dough and contains cored, peeled and sliced apples, spices and cream.
Key Ingredients in This Recipe
You’ll find the complete list of ingredients and exact quantities in the recipe below.
- Dough ingredients
- All-purpose flour – or use self rising flour, but leave out the baking powder.
- Baking powder
- Brown sugar
- Butter
- Egg
- Salt
- Filling ingredients
- Graham crackers – other cookies with similar flavors will also do, or even unflavored breadcrumbs. The function is to absorb liquid
- Apples – I wholeheartedly suggest to use Granny Smith if you want a apple pie with a nice tart flavor with slices that are still somewhat crunchy. Other apples work as well, but most of them are sweeter than a Granny Smith.
- Raisins – black and golden will work.
- Lemon juice
- Granulated sugar
- Corn starch
- Cinnamon
- Egg
- Apricot preserves – or jelly.
My traditional apple pie is how many Dutch make an apple pie, of course each will taste slightly different, but essentially they are based on a similar recipe. Sure enough, many of you may disagree, yours is different, and I accept that wholeheartedly. But when you go to the old fashioned Dutch cafe, coffee shop (the ones where they actually serve coffee), the small restaurant, this is the type apple pie they serve. It consists of dough made from sugar, flour and butter, and a filling containing sliced apples, raisins, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon.
Different apples, different spices, different ratios of the above will make for differently flavored pies. Oh and let’s not forget the temperature and duration of baking will have an effect as well.
How to Make Dutch Apple Pie According to My Tradition
Step 1 – Make the dough by mixing flour, brown sugar, salt and cold butter. Use 2 knives or a pastry cutter to cut the butter into pea size pieces. Add half of a whisked egg and form a uniform dough by mixing and kneading with your hands.
Place in the fridge while you make the filling.
Step 2 – Make the filling by peeling the apples and slices them thin, by hand or use a mandolin. Add raisins, lemon juice, cinnamon, granulated sugar and corn starch and mix. Set aside.
Step 3 – Grease a 9-inch spring form with butter. Cut 1/3 off the dough for the lattice. Roll the rest of the dough out and cover bottom and sides. Poke holes in the bottom with a fork.
Step 4 – Cover the bottom with the cookie crumbs.
Step 5 – Add the filling into the pie dish and divide evenly, trying to avoid air pockets.
Step 6 – Create a lattice of the remaining 1/3 dough.
Step 7 – Cover the outside perimeter with dough to cover the ends of the lattice.
Step 8 – Apply egg wash over the lattice and place the pie in an oven of 350 degrees F. Bake for about 2.5 hours. If the top get too dark cover the pie with aluminum foil until pie is done.
Step 9 – When the apple pie is done and comes out of the oven, brush the dough with apricot preserves for a beautiful shine.
The most favorite Dutch addition to a piece of pie would be whipped cream, as a rosette on top. But I prefer mine without any addition, other than a cup of coffee; I like my pie straight up.
A second addition would be with a scoop of ice cream. Here in the US, I often see apple pie with cheddar. I have to admit, the first time I heard that, I thought apple pie and cheese, but it makes all the sense of the world. We often suggest fresh fruit with a cheese platter, so why not the other way around.
I am going to find a nice apple pie-cheese combo one of these days and will tell you about it. May be we can call that an American Apple Pie.
Other Dutch Recipes to Try
Dutch Apple Pie according to my tradition
Ingredients
Dough
- 300 grams all-purpose flour
- 3.5 teaspoons baking powder
- 150 grams light brown sugar
- 225 grams butter cold
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 egg whisked
Filling
- 1000 grams Granny Smith apple 4-5
- 50 grams raisins
- 4 tablespoons lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 4 graham crackers
- 1 tablespoon apricot preserve
Instructions
- Combine, flour, baking powder (NOTE 1), light brown sugar, salt and butter in a bowl. Use 2 knives or a pastry cutter and cut the butter into small pieces, the size of a green pea.
- Add half of the whisked egg and knead the mixture into a dough. Make sure everything is well mixed, form a ball and place it in the bowl in the refrigerator to cool.
- Grease a 9-inch form with butter and heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Peel, core and slice the apples thinly and place the slices in a bowl.
- Add lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon, corn starch and raisins.
- Crumble the graham crackers into fine crumbs with a food processor or simply with a roller pin.
- Take the dough from the fridge. Lightly flower the surface and the rolling pin and roll the dough out until it is approx. 1/4 inch thick. Press the bottom of the pie form into the dough, to measure the circumference.
- Circle the impression 2 inches wider and place the 11-inch dough circle in the bottom of the pie form and just a little up on the sides. Cut pieces out of the remaining dough, and cover the rest of the sides of the pie form. There should still be about 1/3 of the dough left for the lattice; place this back in the fridge.
- Use a fork and poke holes in the bottom of the pie, then cover the bottom with the graham cracker crumbs.
- Add apple mixture into the pie, make sure that you add small quantities at a time to get a nicely filled pie, without 'air pockets' between the apple slices.
- Take remaining dough out of the fridge. Dust the surface with flour an roll out to 1/4 inch thick, using the rolling pin. Cut think strips from the dough and build your lattice, one strip at a time. Last but not least leave enough dough to put a strip on the outer perimeter of the pie, covering all the endings of the lattice to make a pretty top.
- Brush to top of the lattice with the remaining egg and place the pie in the oven for 2-2.5 hours. If pie becomes too dark cover top with aluminum foil.
- Warm apricot preserve, so it becomes thinner.
- Take pie out of the oven and brush with apricot preserve. Allow to cool entirely.
Notes
- Instead of all-purpose flour and baking powder, you can us self rising flour instead.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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