Elizabeth Poett's Spiced Honey Apple Pie

At Alisal Ranch, we are lucky enough to call the lovely Elizabeth Poett our neighbor. You may have seen her tv show Ranch to Table on the Magnolia Network or as a guest chef at one of our culinary events.

Elizabeth has shared a delicious recipe with us from her new cookbook, The Ranch Table.

“A big apple pie is the perfect fall dessert, and I like to make mine really tall, with lots and lots of apples piled up in a mound under a crisp, flaky crust. Ugly apples are the best for making pies since you can cut out any bad parts and no one’s going to see them. I save these apples from our trees just for pie, and also buy up the seconds at the farmers’ market. We grow Gravenstein apples on the ranch, but you can use any other firm, tart apples. I also like to make my apple pies in a ginger crust, because I would eat ginger every day if I could, and the flavors go so well together.”

Spiced Honey Apple Pie:

Active time: 30 minutes
Total time: 3 hours, including cooling time
Serves: 6 to 8

Ingredients

Ginger Pie Crust (see below)
¼ cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
6 Gravenstein or Granny Smith apples (3 ½ to 4 pounds)
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ cup honey
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large egg
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar

SPECIAL TOOLS
9-inch deep-dish pie plate

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out one of the pieces of pie crust dough into a ¼-inch-thick circle that is 16 inches in diameter. (Keep the other piece of dough in the refrigerator.) Transfer the dough to the pie plate. (If it’s hanging over the edges by more than ½ inch, trim it.) Refrigerate the dough.
3. Peel and core the apples and cut them into ½-inch-thick slices (you’ll have about 10 cups). Put the slices into a large bowl with the lemon juice, granulated sugar, flour, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves; mix well.
4. Remove the pie plate from refrigerator and pour the apples into the pie crust, mounding them up in the center. Drizzle the honey over the top. Cut the butter into ½-inch pieces and scatter it across the filling.
5. Remove the other half of the crust from the refrigerator. On a lightly floured surface, roll the pie crust dough out into a ¼-inch-thick circle. Lay it on top of the pie and tuck the edges of both the upper and lower crusts under the lower crust, then pinch the dough shut.
6. Cut a small hole in the center of the crust with a paring knife, then cut five vents, each about 2 inches long, radiating out from the center of the pie (to mirror the star shape you get when you cut an apple in half horizontally). Whisk the egg in a small bowl and brush it over the top of the pie with a pastry brush, then sprinkle the turbinado sugar evenly over the crust.
7. Bake the pie for 50 to 60 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the sugar has begun to caramelize. (If the crust starts to brown too much, cover it with a piece of aluminum foil.) Let the pie cool for at least 15 minutes.

Ginger Pie Crust:

Active time: 10 minutes
Total time: 2 hours 10 minutes, including chilling
The original pie crust recipe has been doubled for the Spiced Honey Apple pie. Measurements below will produce enough crust for a double-crust pie (top and bottom crust). Divide the dough into two even disks before refrigerating.

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
4 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup ice-cold water

Tip: Freeze the ginger before grating to make it easier to work with.

VARIATION: GINGER PIE CRUST

To make a ginger-flavored pie crust for my Spiced Honey Apple Pie (page 221), double the recipe above (so you have enough dough for both a top and bottom crust), add 2 teaspoons ground ginger and 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger with the flour, butter, sugar, and salt, and divide the dough into two disks before chilling it.

Directions

1. Put the flour, butter, sugar, and salt in a food processor. Pulse until the mixture looks gritty. Continue to pulse as you slowly add the ice water. Stop pulsing when the mixture holds together in a ball when you squeeze it.

2. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and press it into a flattened disk. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 2 hours.

From THE RANCH TABLE by Elizabeth Poett. Copyright © 2023 by Elizabeth Poett. Reprinted by permission of Harvest, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Credit: From The Ranch Table by Elizabeth Poett. Copyright © 2023 by Elizabeth Poett. Reprinted by permission of Magnolia Publications/William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Photography © B.J. Golnick.