Sausage and Apple Pie (Spiced)

Sausage and apple make for a really great pair and for anyone who hasn’t found this out for themselves, consider this recipe your wake up call to get with the winning team, asap. The filling for this pie is very simple: sausage and apples with onion, apple cider and a combination of spices that give it a warm, ‘autumn-y’ flavour. The labour for this pie gets spread out over the course of two days, with the bulk of it being done on the first day. The second day is the easy part: you roll out the pie crust(s), fill the first pie crust, top it off with the second and bake. This makes for good eating for a dinner, but also for brunch or lunch.

Pie Crust:
2¼ sticks butter, frozen (254 g)
2 cups all-purpose flour, unbleached (256 g)
⅓ cup whole-wheat flour (40 g)
1½ tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. granulated sugar
½ tsp. black pepper, freshly ground
6 Tbsp. water, very cold

Filling:
2 lbs hot Italian sausage, casings removed, cooked and drained
3 medium apples, such as Gala, Fuji, or Pink Lady, thinly sliced
1 large onion
2 cups apple cider or apple juice
½ cup light or dark brown sugar
½ tsp. sea salt
¼ tsp. black pepper, freshly ground
¼ tsp. onion powder
¼ tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. ground ginger
⅛ tsp. ground nutmeg
⅛ tsp. ground allspice

For the Pie Crust:
In a large bowl, combine the flours, salt, sugar and black pepper. Use the large holes on a box grater to grate the butter directly into the dry ingredients and stir together with a fork. Add the water, adding more Tbsp. by Tbsp. if needed just until it holds together.

Dump the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and divide into two portions. One should be slightly larger than the other. The larger one will be our bottom crust, the smaller one will be the top crust. Wrap both of these blobs in plastic, then press down to form a well-sealed disc. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before rolling and assembling the pie. (I typically let mine rest overnight).

For the Filling:
In a large, shallow frying pan, cook the sliced apples with the onion, salt, cider or juice and sugar for 15 minutes, or until the apples are tender and the liquid is syrupy.

Stir the cooked sausage into the apple mixture and remove the pan from the heat. Add the pepper and the rest of the spices. Taste it. If the seasoning is to your preference, refrigerate for at least one hour, but preferably overnight.

Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C/200°C fan, Gas Mark 7).

Take the pie dough discs out of the fridge, unwrap and let hang out on a lightly floured surface for a few minutes.

Roll out the larger disc into a 12" circle and set into a 9" glass deep dish pie pan. Use your fingers to gently press the dough into the corners of the pan, so it’s as snug as can be. Roll out the smaller disc into a 10-11" circle. Fill the dough-lined pie pan with the cold sausage-apple filling and use a spoon to smooth out to fill the pan completely.

From here, you can either place the second rolled out disc of pie dough on top of the pie, or cut it into strips and arrange them in a lattice design on top of the pie. Your choice.

Trim any excess so you have an even ¾” overhang. Use your fingers to squeeze the two layers together, then fold the overhang under itself, so the edge is tucked into the pie pan and a ridge is formed. Use the tines of a fork to seal the ridges all around.

Place the pie pan on a rimmed sheet pan you’ve lined with aluminum foil (this makes getting in and out of the oven a lot simpler and also saves on mess from possible seepage.)

Bake for 45-50 minutes, until the pie crust is golden brown. Let sit for about 15-20 minutes before slicing.