Whole Wheat Apple Pie

1. With your hands, mix the flours and salt together in a bowl.

2. Add the butter and shortening to your bowl and break up the butter and shortening with your fingers into the flour until it becomes coarse and crumbly. This will take ~5 minutes. Do not over work the butter and shortening. You want to keep the butter and shortening cold enough to stay solid.

3. Add 1 cup of ice water and mix the dough until it forms one ball. Pour the remainder of the ice water onto the dough to bring the last pieces of dough together. Your dough ball should be slightly crumbly still, with some pieces not totally adhering to the ball. This will provide the flaky crusty quality we all love about pie dough.

4. Next, divide your pie dough into two, and flatten into a disk shape, as pictured. Wrap each with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours. You can leave the dough in your refrigerator for 5-7 days or freeze up to 6 months until ready to use. 2 hours chill time provide the best results. While your dough is chilling, prepare your apple filling. The filling will take ~20 minutes to prepare.

5. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees farenheit. Prepare your apples further by cutting each piece into thirds crosswise. Place the apple pieces in a bowl with the zests, juices, sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger.

6. Roll out one of the chilled pie dough disks with a rolling-pin on a floured surface. Roll the dough from the center out to each side as if you were rolling in the shape of sun rays from the center of the sun. Lift the dough frequently to make sure it doesn’t stick to your counter. Keep rolling until it will fit your 9-10 inch pie dish or is about 1/4 inch thick. You can measure by laying your pie dish upside down on top of the dough. Don’t forget you want 1/2-1 inch or so of overhang. Depending on the size of your pie dish, the diameter of your rolled pie dough will vary.

7. Transfer the dough to your pie dish by rolling it around your rolling-pin and unrolling it onto your dish. Gently press the dough into the pie dish, so the dough fits smoothly into the bottom and comfortably onto the sides of the dish. Don’t pull or stretch your dough. If it needs to be bigger/wider, then remove the dough and roll it out further with your rolling-pin. You should have 1/2-1 inch overhang of dough around the edge of your dish. Trim the dough edge evenly with a small knife and remove the uneven bits.

8. Add your apple mixture to the pie dish and spread evenly. Use a pastry brush and paint egg wash on the edge of your pie dough.

9. Roll out the second pie dough disk just like the previous one. Make sure it is wide enough to cover your pie dish.

10. Transfer the dough to your pie dish and adhere it to the bottom crust by gently pinching the two layers together with your fingers. Remember, do not stretch the top pie dough to make it fit. Roll it out further if it needs to be larger. Once the top layer is adhered to the bottom layer, paint the entire top crust with egg wash and sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar on top evenly.

11. Cut 4-6 slits or vents into the top crust and place on a sheet pan. Bake for 1-1 1/4 hours, or until the crust is browned and the juices begin to bubble out. Serve warm with vanilla coconut milk or cow milk ice cream.