Precookig the apples a bit or letting them sit in sugar and spices in order for them to release the juices is great. Then reduce thee juices with some spiced rum. Preferably Salior Jerries and a nice nutty crumb top with take all the blah out of the apple pie and keep it super traditional. If you don’t procure the bet apples for pie. Like the n. spy or pink ladies or other suggestions. Add some x Ginger to the recipie adds the zing that only the best apple pie apples give.
Cinnamon and walnuts is about all I can suggest. Get some good Vietnamese cinnamon from Penzey’s: it’s killer. Why not do a change-up and make an apple/pear/walnut (or pecan) galette? Much easier, IME, and it’s got eye appeal.
You might also try the addition of a bourbon-caramel in place of the sugar.
All these ideas sound wonderful. I’m going to bookmark this thread and make it my quest to try variations on what everyone said.
I’m going to experiment first by adding applejack and a few other things…if it’s a success, I’ll post it. If it stinks…I was never here and you’ve never heard of me.
Here’s a recipe for bourbon-caramel sauce from a recent newspaper:
Bourbon Caramel Sauce
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• ½ cup water
• 1 tbsp corn syrup
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 cup whipping cream
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• ½ tsp vanilla
• ¼ cup bourbon
Combine sugar, water and corn syrup in a deep, heavy-bottomed saucepan set over medium-high heat. Stir until sugar dissolves. Cook mixture, swirling the pan to promote even browning without stirring, until caramel is nut brown. Remove from heat and stir in butter, cream and salt (careful, the caramel will bubble furiously; if it hardens, set the pot baaack over the heat to re-warm). Stir in the vanilla and bourbon. Sauce will keep in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks. Re-warm gently before serving.
If I hadn’t baked an apple crumb pie just a scant few hours before reading this I would be doing that today! My love for red hots is well documented and goes way back. In my mom’s (now my) Woman’s Day Encyclopedia of Cookery there’s a recipe for a molded jello salad with apples, walnuts, celery and red hots melted into the jello. It’s ridiculous, but I love it. Apple pie with red hots sounds great. i probably would only serve it to a select subset of my friends, though. A friend just dropped off an unexpected pecan pie so we’ll have 4x as much pie as is appropriate for a family of 3 so I’ll have to wait to try this out, but try it I shall.
Stayman apples are new to me this year. I was raised in southern New York but my grandfather was born closer to the apple growing part of the state and his professed preference was for pies made with Northern Spies, so that’s what I’ve always done.
When I was shopping most recently I encountered a display of Stayman apples which declared them locally grown and great for baking. When I was prepping them for the first pie (the test run) they seemed soft, but I was pleased with how well they held their shape for baking. The all Stayman pie was too sweet for my own preference, but not cloyingly so. For tomorrow’s pie I mixed Stayman and Granny Smiths 2:1.
I don’t know if I’ve ever thought of my ability to make pie as a gift. I mean, can’t everyone make pie? There has to be a reason “easy as pie” is an expression, right? But I like to make pie, and people seem to like the results when I do.
Pretend you couldn’t find any apples at the store and make what you want to make. Do these people sign your paycheck or something?
Well, I have this in the oven right now. I hope it comes out well.
gwendee, I swear, the red hots get all melty, and they just blend in with the apples. It’s really a wonderful flavor. Then, you get to see where they were in the pie, because they leave a nice, red signature where they melted away.
I’ve got a bag of Granny Smith apples, and I think I’ll be making myself an apple pie just like that very soon, sometime after all the leftover pies from tomorrow are gone, anyway.
I’m making Alton Brown’s apple pie. It looks delicious and calls for a lot of untraditional ingredients.
Whenever I’ve made Dutch apple pie, it’s been received with rave reviews. (My basic apple pie is well-spiced, with lots of cinnamon and healthy dashes of nutmeg, cloves, and allspice.) That said, I’m not sure how well it would work with a lattice, as I usually make it with a ordinary top crust with a large center vent hole, pouring in the cream a little bit at a time and letting it filter out to the rest of the pie.
I use this recipe (am making two tomorrow morning) and people can’t stop raving. ‘Best apple pie ever’ is the general consensus. When in doubt, add more butter. Also, Granny Smith apples taste great cooked… I don’t like sweet, mushy apples in pie.
Awww, they’re my best friends and have me over for dinner dozens of times throughout the year. It’s their menu and I’m thrilled to make want they want.
The only thing I have to add to this wonderful thread is, when the dullards I know asked me to cook a particular item, bland as it was, if I got too creative, they whined about it! “not that this isn’t delicious, but we like the plain old -whatever- recipe better”. :rolleyes: So I saved myself time and trouble and bought a factory -whatever- and saved the variations for my own family.
Then you’re a good person, and I hope you find an apple pie recipe that’s good enough to go in your “favorites” file. 
Put lots and lots of apples in, two kinds, hard and soft. And on the crust, put some little cutouts, leaves or stars. Paint with an eggwash and bake, and they’ll want to take pictures before you cut it.
:: pats self on back ::: I threw some ginger in my pies yesterday, all on my very ownsome. I am basking in my fifty-six-approved ingredient addition. 