Pie Crust That Taste Like a Biscuit!
I made this pie yesterday to make our new little house smell good and to see what a buttermilk crust would taste like. I love buttermilk biscuits, so I imagined a crust made with buttermilk would taste like a big biscuit and have a flaky texture. And it did! This crust was flaky and flavorful, though I will admit I did use a combination of butter and shortening rather than straight butter. Butter is great, shortening crusts are always so flaky. I know it's not the healthiest thing, but neither is pie in general -- especially when you top it with a little scoop of HEB "1905 Vanilla". It has an interesting "burnt" or slightly caramelized taste to it.
The filling is pretty basic, but I've come to appreciate "basic" when it comes to apple pies because some recipes tend to be too heavy and the apple flavor is muted by too much butter and sugar. I like it when the apples are tart and not too mushy.
Recipe
Apple Pie with Buttermilk Crust
Ingredients
Buttermilk Crust
- 2 ½ cups 12 ounces all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons powdered buttermilk**
- 8 oz unsalted Plugra European style butter, cut into chunks**
- ½ cup ice water
Apple Filling
- 3 ½ pounds apples cored, peeled and thinly sliced
- 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice
- ¼ cup flour
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon butter cut into thin pieces
Instructions
- Combine the flour, sugar, salt and buttermilk powder in a food processor. Add butter (and shortening if using) and then pulse until mixture is mostly coarse, but with a few pea-size lumps. Add the water 2 tablespoons at a time, pulsing after each addition, until dough starts to come together. Empty onto a flat surface and push dough together into two compact balls. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill until ready to use.
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Roll out one round of dough and line a 9 ½ inch deep pie dish with it. Keep chilled while you prepare the filling.
- In a large bowl, toss the apples, lemon juice. Mix the flour, sugar, salt and spices together in a separate bowl, and then add to the apples and toss to coat. Pour apple mixture into pie crust, pressing apples down as tightly as you can. Scatter pieces of butter over the apples
- For the top crust, roll into another circle and place over the top, pinching ends and cutting vents as usual, or roll out and cut into strips to make lattice.
- Put a baking sheet on the lower rack to catch drips.
- Bake the pie on the rack above the baking sheet for 20 minutes at 425, then reduce heat to 350 and continue baking at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes or until crust is golden. If crust is browning too quickly, place a sheet of foil loosely over the top. Let cool before serving.
Notes
For the butter, you can use a total of 8 oz (1 cup/2 sticks) of butter or use a combination of ½ cup butter (4 oz) and ½ cup shortening (3.4 oz).
Anna says
Thanks Sue! I was waiting for someone to notice :).
Sue says
The changes to the blog look nice!
Todd says
This pie is fantastic, and so is the crust. I've had it for dessert for the past few nights and it is great!
Anna says
We've moved! Still in Austin, but we've switched houses for now.
kim fluck says
Looks so good. The "new little house" part threw me for a loop, too. What did I miss!?
Sue says
You have a new little house? I'm sure it smelled homey while the pie was baking. The pie looks nice with the lattice and I'm sure it was tasty but I too prefer shortening crusts because of the texture. I would give this a try though. I also like simpler apple filling where the apples shine and aren't too mushy.
I grew up with lard crusts and they are fantastic but non hydrogenated lard is hard to come by.
Carol says
Anna-I don't know that I have ever used lard. Maybe before I got married but I didn't know much about baking back then :). I stick with Crisco. I have used off brand shortenings in the past but will now only use all vegetable shortening. Lard scares me. We have gone Vegan as a family for a while (me kicking and screaming) and vegetarian for a long time to. We do eat some meat now but mostly only for Sunday dinner or for a night out. Maybe I will have to try this and not tell my husband and sons the change. They all love apple pie so I could try it with that. Since I don't use it, I will have to look around. I live by Pittsburgh and there are some good stores for getting hard to find items.
Anna says
Emily, the crusts I've made with oil have had kind of a mealy texture. Not sure how a mixture of oil and butter would work, but probably better than 100% oil. I wasn't too crazy about a coconut oil crust, either. It was okay, but why settle for okay when you can have great?
Carol, have you tried lard? I would like to start using it, but the non-hydrogenated kind is hard to come by around here. In some towns you can buy good non-hydrogenated leaf lard at the grocery store, but in Austin you to order it on-line or pick it up at a downtown farmers market. I've been meaning to do that.
Carol says
I prefer shortening over butter for pie. I have tried butter but the results are not as good. Any other time I use butter and kind of avoid other baking recipes with shortening. The smell of apple pie is the best!
Emily says
This looks amazing! And yes, I agree; i prefer the filling to be more on the simple side.
I'll have to try a buttermilk crust. I made a crust yesterday using butter and oil, and it turned out pretty well. I'm going to work on it some more.