Super Apple Pie

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Give yourself a good three hours to make this pie, if you have experience.

It?s hard to find a 9? tart pan with 2? high sides. I finally gave in to using my 1? high by 11? diameter tart pan.

I ordered the Grains of Paradise online because I knew that would be difficult to find anywhere else. But I also had trouble finding applejack, because I mistakenly expected to find it at one of our glorious California supermarkets, which all have liquor. You must go to a respectable liquor store, like Bevmo, to find applejack here.

Apple cider is a seasonal product, but I found a ?spiced cider? at Trader Joe?s. My question to Mr. Brown is: do we really need the cider, since this is already a pretty juicy recipe? I had to refrain from pouring all the juices in the jelly/limejuice/cider concoction into the final pie, fearing it would create a puddle on the bottom.

I couldn?t find a pie bird except online, so I made my own out of aluminum foil and that worked well.

Six apples is not enough. Seven barely covered the bottom of my tart pan with a few slices to spare to ?pile? the center.

The dough wants to break apart. Maybe I used too much applejack to wet it; but I still think it?s not a forgiving dough. You must be willing to work with holes and patches.

Even with the aforementioned seven apples, I found that there just wasn?t enough drained liquid when added to the small saucepan to prevent the resulting reduction from becoming too viscous and sticky to properly brush across the crust. My brush wanted to tear the dough and pull pieces of dough off the top.

The final analysis: this is not a very sweet apple pie. I missed the taste of cinnamon, but that?s just me. The crust is heavenly, even though I strongly resist the idea of using hydrogenated fats (there?s 2 oz of Crisco in it!. Would I make it again? I?d try the crust with my own filling, that?s my answer.

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All I can say is that the pie is amazing! That is once I obtained all the ingredients...I ended up ordering the tart pan, Grains of Paradise and the Tapioca Flour from amazon.com. I went hunting for the other ingredients at Whole Foods and Stop & Shop. Could not find Applejack at any liquor stores in the Boston suburbs so I substituted Calvados. After running all around I have to admit I was more than a little irritated. I said to myself, "this pie better be worth it!" I am happy to say it was. My husband could not wait for the pie to fully cool (next time I will make it when he is not around so the pie did not maintain its shape (obviously once I took it out of the tart pan. The good news is that it still tasted wonderful. My husband's friend asked me if any of my friends know how to cook as good as I do...what a compliment!

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We watched Alton Brown make this recipe on Good Eats, and it was fantastic. Difficult to find "tapioca flour/starch" and "apple jelly" of all things, but truly a delish pie. Crust is most challenging for me, but this crust turned out perfect with the 2 kinds of fats + applejack. Apples kept their structure and texture, not too much juice, and certainly not watery. We'll make this again and again.

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I was so excited to see Alton address the problem of the dome crust, a recurrent problem for me, that I rushed to the store to buy all the ingredients. I couldn't find Apple Jack, but thought apple cider vinegar may work (I just prayed the entire time that it would, and I too used tapioca pudding mix in lieu of flour, and cinnemon & nutmeg for grains of paradise (only because I couldn't find it. I LOVE the tart pan idea! I'm throwing away all my pie tins. The result=one perfectly delicious pie!!

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great pie but a few of the ingredients and fancy tools are just not available in alaska. so my husband and i did what we do best, improvised. apple jack turned into bacardi silver. tapioca flour turned into tapioca pudding. apple jelly turned into homemade raspberry jam from last year. grains of paradise? all we have up here are grains of sand. we ended up with a small dome abd the pie turned out great.

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What a unique crust!! Very flaky and delicious! I now use applejack in all my fruit pie crusts! That was a great tip!
I also substituted the types of apples to what was available where I live. I loved the fact that you could actually taste the different apple flavors! YUM!
Okay, I did not use the Grains of Paradise but instead used cinnamon. What's an apple pie without cinnamon??!!
And be careful when reducing the drained apple juices. It reduces very very quickly.... so stay with the pot and watch it!
Everybody LOVED it!!
Thanks Alton!

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What is grains of paradise? I've never heard of this.

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I went to a great store we have in Ottawa called Ma Cusine and found the Pie Bird and the pan. My husband and I both did this pie together. The result was the best Apple pie ever. It turned out to look exactly like the one Alton did. In canada I used Calvados instead of Applejack, as we don't have that brandy here. But that is an apple brandy. I could not find Tapioca flour, so I used rice flour. We brought it to our friends for dinner and he is not a big apple pie lover, he loved this one. He loved the crust (more then his wifes crust They too could not believe no cinnamon etc. It was delicious and will do it again. Love Alton.

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On the show, he used a tart pie pan. I bought 2-7" tart pans. I discovered a terrific store named Ambrosia in South Haven, MI that has all kinds of professional cooking utensils, books and seasonings but the Grains of Paradise. Apple cider is a seasonal thing in our area. I improvised and it turn out good. I have used the tart pans for making muffin cakes. TERRIFIC PANS!!!

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Okay, so I didn't have a full sized food processor to that cost me $200 right there. By the time I bought all of the other ingredients (2.5" tart pan from Williams Sonoma - pie birds from the internet - Grains of Paradise from the internet, this was a very expensive apple pie. The good thing is that I now have everything I'll need in the future, so the cost will be diluted.

Anyway, I ended up with a dome top, my apples did not drain more than a tablespoon of liquid, and I burned my hand trying to get the pie pan off of the floor of my oven... Result: my husband and son LOVED the pie and we ate it for days. I think that I need to overstuff the crust just a wee bit more, or maybe the tart pan is too deep? Unsure...any guidance would be great! I couldn't find a 2", only the 2.5". Oh well...this pie was a great addition to my Easter dinner!