Skyrim: Apple Pie

For the last week and a half I’ve gotten a strong urge to play Skyrim again. I booted up the game and decided I would start fresh and maybe this time around complete the main quest line. My new character is a strong orsimer woman that relies primarily on her heavy armor, shield, and mace. She has also delved a bit into the magical arts of conjuration and restoration. It has been very enjoyable going back and playing this game again! I really like how different the game feels depending on what skills you use on a character. My previous character focused completely on destruction spells and in a fight would typically be running around in a circle while tossing fireballs at the enemy. This time around, my character just charges in and bashes enemies with her shield and sunders their faces with her mace. I’ve spent a lot more hours than I should have but I just can’t get enough of the game. I’m really hoping this time I finish the main story.

While playing this time I’ve noticed just how much food populates the world of Skyrim. Not only can you find pieces of random food on tables but there are several recipe books that could be found throughout the world. Realizing that Thanksgiving was just around the corner I got excited when I realized Skyrim has apple pie in the game. I dove in and began to do research on how to create the most delicious apple pie. Growing up, most pies I had were store bought so I never had much appreciation for pies. After finally learn how to make one from scratch I understand why people love pies so much. This recipe does require a good amount of prep work so I recommend you giving yourself some extra time to make it. The dough should be made a few hours before you plan on building the pie because it does need to chill in the refrigerator.

Required Equipment: bowls, 9-inch deep pie dish, strainer,
Servings: 8 large slices
Ingredients:
Pie Dough
– 2 ½ cups flour
– 1 tbsp sugar
– 1 ½ tsp salt
– 1 cup butter (cold and cubed)
– ½ cup cold water

Filling
– 6-7 large apples (I used granny smith)
– ¼ cup lemon juice
– ¼ cup flour
– ½ cup sugar
– 1 tsp cinnamon
-1/4 tsp all spice
– ¼ tsp nutmeg

– 1 egg

In a bowl combine flour, sugar and salt. Take the cubed pieces of butter and place them in the bowl. Using your hands, combine the butter and the flour. You want there to still be chunks of butter (similar to the picture above) in the flour. This is going to help make the crust nice and flaky.

Next, slowly add the water to the mixture. If the dough is too dry, feel free to add one tablespoon of extra water at a time. Combine the mixture and do not over work it. Form the dough into a ball and wrap with plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator for at least an hour. You can prepare the dough a day in advance if you would like to.

Now to work on the filling! Begin by peeling off the skin and cutting the apples into small slices.

In a bowl, add the lemon juice and toss the apple slices until they are all coated. This will help prevent the apples from browning.

In a separate bowl combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon, all spice, and nutmeg. Combine this with the apples and mix until the apples are fully coated in the seasoning. Set this aside and allow it to sit for at least a half hour.

Pre-heat your oven to 400°F. While you wait you can begin to prepare the bottom half of the dough. Cut the dough ball in half (place the other half back in the refrigerator). Flour both the dough and the counter top. We don’t want the crust sticking to anything. Roll the dough out until it is 1/8-1/4 inch thick.

Place the dough in the baking dish. Make sure it is neatly pressed into the dish. Lightly cover it with plastic wrap and place it back in the refrigerator.

Place a strainer on top of a bowl. We are going to remove the juice from the apple filling. Place the apples in the strainer and let it sit there for about 15 minutes. There are two reasons for this. First if we were to add the apple filling as is to the pie it would turn out extremely liquidy. Secondly those juices make a simple caramel sauce that we are going to use for the filling. After the 15 minutes, place the extra juice in a microwave safe bowl and add two tablespoons of butter. Lightly cover the bowl and place in the microwave for 5 minutes or until the liquid has reduced in half.

When you are ready to bake, take out the pie dish and fill it with the apples. Cover the apple filling with the simple caramel sauce.

Take the other half of the pie dough and roll that out the same way to make the pie crust. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of this process and would highly recommend watching this video for reference (I might add a video of my own in the future explaining the process).

After you have covered the pie give it a light egg wash on the top and sprinkle some sugar on the top. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes have passed, reduce the heat to 350°F and bake for another 40 minutes. Take the pie out of the oven and allow it to rest for at least an hour before serving.