Published September 1, 2008. From Cook's Illustrated.
For an everyday dessert, a good skillet apple pie recipe should take a no-frills approach. We made our fruit filling juicy and flavorful by combining apples with cider that we thickened with cornstarch and sweetened with maple syrup. To make sure that the apples were cooked by the time the pastry was golden, we caramelized them on the stovetop before topping them with the pastry and baking the pie in the oven.
If your skillet is not heatproof, precook the apples and stir in the cider mixture as instructed, then transfer the apples to a 13- by 9-inch baking dish. Roll out the dough to a 13- by 9-inch rectangle and bake it as instructed. If you do not have apple cider, reduced apple juice may be used as a substitute—simmer 1 cup apple juice in a small saucepan over medium heat until reduced to 1/2 cup (about 10 minutes). Serve the pie warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Use a combination of sweet, crisp apples such as Golden Delicious and firm, tart apples such as Cortland or Empire.
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