Smoked Apple Pie?


 
J

JohnShepherd

TVWBB Member
Every Thanksgiving, I'm on the hook for bringing apple pies. It's my grandmother's recipe, but occasionally I like to bring an experiment along with Gramma's tried and true. This year, I was pondering whether it might be worth cooking one on the WSM with a little apple wood. Anyone ever tried something similar?
 
I think a key to a good pie is the crust, so getting the temp right for the crust is important.

I did a rustic apple tart on the pizza stone of my BGE and it was fantastic. There was just a hint of smoke but the crust was amazing.

I cooked a pumpkin pie in a stone pie dish in my gas grill one year we did not have power. No smoke flavor but the crust and the pie was perfect.

I'll share a secret ingredient for the crust of an apple pie: use applejack brandy instead of water. Put it in the freezer and it will be ice cold but not frozen. And, the alcohol cooks off faster than water leaving a flakey crust.

I have a bottle of Laird's smooth blend 80 proof I use.

And a shot for the cook and its all good.

1636614312668.png
 
Dan, alcohol doesn't create gluten strands, leading to a more tender, flaky crust. There are a lot of bakers that use vodka or grain neutral spirits for exactly this purpose, it's a much more forgiving method.
 
DanHoo said:
I think a key to a good pie is the crust, so getting the temp right for the crust is important.

I did a rustic apple tart on the pizza stone of my BGE and it was fantastic. There was just a hint of smoke but the crust was amazing.

I cooked a pumpkin pie in a stone pie dish in my gas grill one year we did not have power. No smoke flavor but the crust and the pie was perfect.

I'll share a secret ingredient for the crust of an apple pie: use applejack brandy instead of water. Put it in the freezer and it will be ice cold but not frozen. And, the alcohol cooks off faster than water leaving a flakey crust.

I have a bottle of Laird's smooth blend 80 proof I use.

And a shot for the cook and its all good.

View attachment 40383
Click to expand...

Sounds incredible! I'll pass it along the apple brandy tip to my wife, the baker. She does some really great baking for the whole neighborhood. I love her pies. She told me while making the dough, water/liquor temperature was important; chilled. Something about cutting in the butter or lard while it's solid and it makes for flakey layers. (y)
 
Last edited:
From Susie Bulloch @ heygrillhey.com

Smoked Apple Pie​


This Smoked Apple Pie is the perfect Thanksgiving pie. Cooked on the smoker and topped with a buttery crumble topping, I guarantee you'll find excuses to make this pie all year long.

Prep Time1 hr
Cook Time1 hr
Cooling Time30 mins
Total Time2 hrs 30 mins

Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Smoked Apple Pie, Smoked Dutch Apple Pie

Servings: 8 people

Calories: 519kcal

Author: Susie Bulloch (heygrillhey.com)

Ingredients​

Crust​

  • 8 Tablespoons very cold salted butter
  • 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 4 Tablespoons ice water more as needed

Apple Filling​

  • 5 1/2 cups baking apples peeled, cored, and sliced into 1/4 inch slices
  • 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Crumb Topping​

  • 3/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup salted butter softened

Instructions​

  • Prepare the pie crust. Cut the chilled butter into cubes and put it back in the refrigerator while you prepare the flour. In a large food processor with a steel blade, place the flour, salt, and sugar. Pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter to the flour and pulse the food processor until the butter has broken down to the size of peas (12-15 times).
  • Start the food processor and while it is running, pour the ice water down the feed tube until the dough begins to form a ball. Stop the processor as soon as the dough just starts to come together (there will still be a lot of unincorporated pieces of dough in the mixer bowl).
  • Dump out on a floured board and press the dough into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
  • While the dough is in the refrigerator, preheat your pellet smoker to 375 degrees F. You can use whatever wood you like, but I recommend apple. At this higher temperature, you won’t get too much smoke flavor from the grill. If you want, you can bake in the oven. I recommend moving your oven rack to the lowest shelf.
  • Unwrap the dough and place it on a floured surface and roll into a 12 inch round. Transfer carefully to a deep dish 9x3 inch pie tin and crimp the edges. Place the pie tin back in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling and topping.
  • Combine all of the ingredients for the pie filling in a large bowl. Toss gently with a rubber spatula to distribute the ingredients without breaking too many of the apples.
  • Pile the apples into the prepared pie crust and set aside.
  • In another bowl, combine the ingredients for the crumb topping. Use a fork or a pastry cutter to evenly distribute the butter.
  • Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the apples.
  • Place the pie into your preheated smoker, close the lid, and bake for 60 minutes. If the edges of the pie crust start to darken too much, you can cover the edges with foil.
  • Remove the pie and allow to cool before serving.

Smoked Apple Pie - Hey Grill, Hey

wordpress-live.heygrillhey.com wordpress-live.heygrillhey.com
 
One thing I do is pre-cook the filling a little bit so it doesn't shrink as much while in the pie. I was thinking about maybe spreading the filling on a baking sheet in my WSM 18 for a short time to get more smoke flavor. Maybe just do that, then bake the assembled pie in the oven as usual.

I think this may be one experiment that will need a trial run before T-day.
 
Welp i just threw a pie on my pellet grill pre fabbed crust keep ya all updated!!!
 

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I like some smoked meats, but am having trouble wrapping my head around smoked apple pie.
Why put poor Grandma out of a job?
 
Bob H. said:
I like some smoked meats, but am having trouble wrapping my head around smoked apple pie.
Why put poor Grandma out of a job?
Click to expand...
Gramma's been "out of a job" for a few decades now. There will always be her apple pie at the table, I'm just looking to add a different option.
 
After several false starts due to last minute changes of plans, I finally got around to doing a rushed quick test Friday afternoon. I cut up the apples, tossed them with the sugar and spices, then arranged the apple slices on the foiled covered grates and cooked them with apple wood at very low heat. I didn't bother with the grate level ambient probe, but the stock dome thermo was reading about 200. They weren't softening up as much as when I precook the filling for a normal pie. After 45 minutes, I figured I was probably already pushing the smoke level too far. The initial taste samples had a slightly bitter taste. I pulled the apples off and put them in a bowl to cool, then into the fridge to assemble and cook the pie later that evening in the oven.

My wife and I liked it. The bitterness was mostly gone, and smoke flavor was *very* pronounced. It's definitely pushing the edge for me (and I like strong smoke), but a scoop of vanilla ice cream goes really well with it. Next time I'll go with more heat and shorter cook.

Smoked Apples.jpg
Smoked apple pie.jpg
 
Sounds tasty. I've not precooked apples for pie before, but now I want to try something like this.

What kind of apples did you use?
 
DanHoo said:
Sounds tasty. I've not precooked apples for pie before, but now I want to try something like this.

What kind of apples did you use?
Click to expand...
I prefer Granny Smiths. With the smoke, I might be inclined to try a less tart apple next time.

Usually, I microwave the apples until they're just starting to soften, the idea being there'd be less shrinkage while baking and less of a gap between the top crust and the filling. It's always a crap shoot though. During this smoke the apples hardly softened at all, and I suspect some of the moisture was just evaporated. They still shrank during the bake, but not too much.

The smoked pie recipes I came across all talked about cooking the whole pie in the smoker, so the smoke flavor would mainly be in the crust. I wanted the smoke in the filling.
 
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