Already have an account?

Apple Pie with Cream Cheese Crust

Lemon and ginger give a light, fresh flavor to our beautiful apple pie.

Serving Size:

10

Active Time:

2 hrs.

Total Time:

7 hrs.

Ingredients

Crust:

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 Tbs. sugar
  • ¼ tsp. salt
  • ¾ cup cold butter, cut into ½” pieces
  • 2 oz. cold cream cheese, cut into ½” pieces
  • 1 Tbs. lemon juice
  • Ice water

Filling:

  • 1 cup + ½ tsp. sugar
  • 3 Tbs. all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp. grated peeled fresh ginger
  • ½ tsp. grated lemon zest
  • 3 lbs. Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, cut into ¼”-thick slices, about 11 cups
  • 1 Tbs. lemon juice
  • 2 egg whites
  • Pink concentrated food coloring

Instructions

To make crust:

  • In large bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt. With pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter and cream cheese until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add lemon juice and 1 Tbs. water; with fork, stir until dough forms, adding more water, 1 tsp. at a time, if necessary. Shape dough into two disks; wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 1 hour. 
  • Place rimmed baking sheet on rack in center of oven; preheat oven to 375°F. Coat 9″ pie pan with cooking spray. On lightly floured surface, roll one dough disk into 13″ round; fit into pie pan. Trim and flute edge; refrigerate. 
  • Line baking sheet with wax paper. On lightly floured surface, roll remaining dough into 13″ round. Using 2 ¼” and 1 ¼” flower-shaped cookie cutters and 3″ and 2″ teardrop-shaped leaf cutters or knife, cut out shapes. Using 3/8″ round cutter (such as Wilton round pastry tip #2A), cut out rounds from remaining dough; flatten round cutouts slightly. With small knife, score lines into leaves for veins. Transfer shapes to wax-paper-lined baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate. 

To make filling:

  • Combine 1 cup sugar, flour, ginger and zest. Stir in apples and lemon juice. 
  • Tint 1 egg white pink with food coloring. Brush some of mixture over cutouts; layer large and small flowers, then top with rounds. Brush leaves and fluted edge of crust with untinted egg white. 
  • Transfer apple mixture to pie shell; lightly press down. Arrange leaves and flowers over filling; lightly press onto each other and crust edge to seal. Sprinkle with remaining ½ tsp. sugar. Bake on hot baking sheet 1 hour or until golden and bubbly, covering with foil if browning too quickly. Cool on rack.

Conversation

All comments are subject to our Community Guidelines. Woman's World does not endorse the opinions and views shared by our readers in our comment sections. Our comments section is a place where readers can engage in healthy, productive, lively, and respectful discussions. Offensive language, hate speech, personal attacks, and/or defamatory statements are not permitted. Advertising or spam is also prohibited.

Use left and right arrow keys to navigate between menu items. Use right arrow key to move into submenus. Use escape to exit the menu. Use up and down arrow keys to explore. Use left arrow key to move back to the parent list.