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Apple Pie with Cheddar and Thyme Crust

A classic apple pie inside a flakey, tender crusted enhanced with cheddar cheese and fresh chopped thyme.  Autumn glorified!

Course Dessert
Prep Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 5 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 15 minutes
Servings 8

Ingredients

  • Recipe for Perfect Pie Crust
  • 1/3 cup firmly packed shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1 tbsp fresh chopped thyme leaves
  • 6-7 mix of medium large Gala, Mactintosh, Honeycrisp, Golden Delicious apples (about 2 lbs) or other favourite baking apple that won't fall apart in the baking)
  • 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar or coconut palm sugar
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  • 2 tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot starch
  • 2 tbsp AP flour
  • 1/4 tsp kosher salt
  • 2 tbsp almond meal or graham cracker crumbs
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1 egg for egg wash
  • 1 tbsp turbinado or demerara sugar for garnishing the crust

Instructions

  1. PREPARE THE PERFECT PIE CRUST, ADJUSTING WITH THE FOLLOWING STEP

    When adding the shortening and butter, use 1 tbsp less of the butter. (5 tbsp total instead of the 6 tbsp or 1/3 cup)

  2. Replace this butter with the grated cheddar cheese and fresh thyme.

    Continue with pastry recipe as is.  See Notes below.

    Divide into two disks, one slightly larger than the other. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.

  3. Take out the larger disk and place on a well floured surface. Let it warm up a little bit (around 10 minutes) Flouring your rolling pin, roll the disk out. Decrease pressure as you reach the edges. After each roll, spin the dough 1/4 turn. Keep flouring the surfaces to keep from sticking. Roll to 2-3 inches larger than the pie plate you are using (should be around 1/8" thick.
  4. Either roll the disk up around the rolling pin and release it over the pie plate; or fold it in half loosely and lay across the pie plate and then open it up. Allow the sides to fall in just a little, so that there are no gaps between the dough and the pie plate. This will ensure that the dough will not pull up from the base, or shrink during baking. Trim it, allowing enough of an edge to work with the type of crimp you wish to use. Place it all back into the fridge to chill for about 15 minutes.

  5. PREPARE THE FILLING

    Preheat the oven to 425F.

    Peel, core and slice the apples and put into a large bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice.

  6. Place the sugar, cinnamon, cloves, corn starch, flour, and salt in a small bowl and mix thoroughly. Pour over the apple slices. 
  7. Using a rubber spatula, stir gently to coat the apples. Wait about 5 minutes, and then give it another good stir to move the juices around that are being released. Let the apple mixture sit at least 15 minutes to release more juices. This will make it easier for them to all fit in the pie shell, with less worry of shrinkage later.

  8. Remove the remaining disk of dough, as well as the pie plate with the prepared shell.

    Sprinkle the bottom of the prepared pie shell with the almond meal. This is there to catch and help thicken any excess liquids. Don't worry, you won't taste it at all.

  9. Fill with the apple mixture. I like to do this by hand, arranging the apples in even layers, filling in all the gaps. Mound higher in the middles. Press down gently on all the apples. This will make sure it bakes compactly, and will lessen the chances of air holes forming during the baking.

    Pour any juices at the bottom of the bowl over the apples.

  10. Take the tbsp of butter and divide into small cubes. Dot these evenly over the filling.

  11. Roll out the remaining disk to 1/8" circle at least 2" wider than your pie plate, following the method above (if you want to have a covered top) Lay this over the apples. Press gently over the apple filling. Fold the top layer edge under the bottom layer of dough. Press and crimp as desired.

    Alternatively, you can do a lattice, cut out pattern, or even a streusel topping (similar to a crisp or crumble topping of oats, flour, brown sugar, butter and spices)

  12. Put finished pie back into the fridge for 10 minutes.

    Remove from fridge and place onto a baking sheet. Prepare the egg wash by mixing the egg with a dash of water in a small bowl. Brush some of this all over the pie crust (unless your using a streusel topping!) Sprinkle the turbinado sugar evenly over the top of the pie.

  13. Bake the pie in the bottom third of the oven for 30 minutes, or until just starting to brown.

    Reduce heat to 375 and continue baking another 30-35 minutes, or until the juices are bubbling.

    If the crust is getting too brown, cover with tin foil, or pie guard.

    Remove from the oven and set on a cooling rack. Cool completely.

    Serve with vanilla ice cream (why mess with a good thing!?)

Recipe Notes

I keep the sugar in the recipe for the dough for this pie. Ultimately this is a sweet pie (unlike a turkey pot pie etc) so I want the crust to agree with the filling. The addition of the cheese is just a playful addition, not meant to turn the dough into a savoury one.
It is best that you bake most pies the morning of, or the day before you wish to serve them. You want any juices and liquids in the filling to firm up and set completely.
When I bake this pie, I like it cooling by 1:30 or 2 pm so that I can serve it at 7pm (this should give you an indication of the minimum of time it should set for.
Adapted from The Perfect Pie Crust