Rosh HaShanah Recipe: Apple Pie with Honey Ice Cream

The idea for this recipe came to me at the Wilco concert this past weekend.  I’m not a fan of honey cake… or really… honey anything.  I’m also not a fan of apple cake.  So that knocked out two traditional desserts served on Rosh Hashanah (apples because they are round like the year, and honey to wish people a sweet new year).  On the other hand, while I don’t like to eat apple pie (I have this thing about mushy apples), I love to make apple pie, and my brother’s girlfriend gave me this fantastic pie idea recently that I wanted to try out. As Jeff Tweedy sang, I thought about apple pie with vanilla ice cream — my staple side dessert to the main dessert — when suddenly it hit me: honey ice cream.  Apples and honey.

Get it?

So I’m posting these recipes in case other people want to make them for their Rosh Hashanah dinner tomorrow night.

Double Bottom Apple Pie

Ingredients for the Crust

3 3/4 cups of unbleached, all-purpose flour (I like King Arthur)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
3 sticks of butter cut into small bits
1/2 cup of ice water (you may need more, but start with this)

Everyone loves my pies. One man told me that he would choose my pumpkin pie as his last meal if he was about to be executed. So what I’m about to write will horrify all pie makers, but this is what I do…

Put the dry ingredients (flour, salt, and sugar) in the food processor with the metal blade and pulse. Add the dots of butter into the food processor (while it’s off) and toss around a bit with a fork to coat with flour mixture. Turn on the food processor and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse sand. Then sprinkle on the water (yes! While it is in the food processor! Don’t gasp!) and pulse again until the dough pulls together. Make sure you add only enough water to bring the dough together. Too much and the dough will be difficult to work with.

Divide your dough into two circles, wrap in plastic wrap, flatten with your hand, and throw them in the refrigerator. Go write a blog post because you have an hour.

Ingredients for the Pie (modified from Baking Illustrated)

One helping of the pie crust above
7 apples, peeled and sliced thinly (Go for a mixture of types. The only ones I don’t use are golden delicious. I don’t know why I’m biased against them in pies.)
Lemon juice (just enough so the apples don’t discolour)
Scant 1 cup of sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
dash of allspice
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 500 degrees, with the rack on the lowest setting. I keep the pizza stone in there just because I think it helps conduct heat. Take the first dough out of the refrigerator.

Roll it out by sprinkling some flour on it (not the flour above… just some extra flour) and placing a piece of parchment paper between the dough and the rolling pin. Press the dough into a 9-inch pie plate and cut off the overhang with kitchen scissors. Roll out the leftover dough and make a second circle by placing the bottom of the pie plate over the dough.

You want a circle that fits the exact dimensions of the bottom of the pie plate. Place this dough circle inside the pie plate, creating a double-thick bottom crust. Refrigerate the dough inside the pie plate.

Peel and slice the apples and toss them with lemon juice so they don’t brown. Mix the dry ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, flour, and salt) and toss into the apple bowl too (save just a bit of the sugar to use later).

This is going to look like a lot of apples — mostly because it is — but I promise that it will all fit in a 9-inch pie pan. It will mound slightly in the center.

Now roll out the second pie dough to make the top crust. Lift it over the mound of apples and press the edges together with the back of a fork (the top of the pie plate crust to the top crust). Cut off any excess dough. Using the kitchen scissors, snip a few holes in the top of the crust in order to allow the pie to vent. I sometimes put it in the freezer for a few minutes to allow it to firm up again.

If you want to get all fancy, brush the top of the pie with some egg white or water and sprinkle on the remaining sugar.

Place in the oven and lower the temperature to 425 degrees. Bake 25 minutes. Reduce the temperature again to 375 degrees. Bake for another 30 minutes. The pie is ready when the top crust is a golden brown.

Allow it to cool and start work on your ice cream.

Honey Ice Cream

Ingredients for the Ice Cream

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup of honey

Make sure your ice cream maker has been in the freezer for 24 hours (you know, the part that goes into the freezer… not the whole damn maker). Place all four ingredients in a pan and gently heat (slow and steady) until the honey is melted and combined. Remove from the heat and allow it to cool slightly. Transfer the mixture to another container and place in the refrigerator for a few hours. Make sure the mixture is COLD before you use it.

Start the ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Mine usually takes about a half hour to freeze into ice cream, so I like to start it at the beginning of dinner so it’s ready when I serve the pie.

Voila — a new take on apples and honey.