This year, KCRW's PieFest & Contest has not one but two apple pie categories — Apple Crumble and Apple Double Crust (which includes lattice).
Nicole Rucker was the first baker to achieve multiple wins in our Pie Contest. She went on to win a first place ribbon at the American Pie Council's National Pie Championships. She now has two Fat + Flour pie shops — one in Grand Central Market and another in Culver City — and wrote Dappled, a cookbook devoted to fruit. Is there anyone more qualified to discuss apple pies?
"Crumble is a lot of people's favorite, in terms of fruit pie topping," Rucker says. She makes two different types, a cream cheese-based crumble and an oat and brown sugar crumble. For the former, she replaces some of the butter with cream cheese. "It has this tender and slightly tangy cream cheese dough flavor and texture to it," she says.
As for lattice tops, "I think that they're gorgeous" but "they do have some areas where they can go wrong," Rucker says. "I think people generally don't use enough of a weave on top so they have these huge, open gaps between the strips and that is going to let in too much moisture from the pie filling, and it ends up shrinking and looking kind of sad." She recommends rolling the top crust thinner than the bottom crust so it bakes faster and more evenly.
As for the fruit filling, Rucker prefers a light, tart apple, like Granny Smith or Pink Lady (or perhaps mixing them together). She also makes a case for using frozen apple slices. She recommends leaving them to thaw in the fridge overnight, draining off the liquid, seasoning them, pre-cooking half of them, then combining them with uncooked, thawed apples.
"That is the taste of a classic apple pie that most people think of," she says. "I think you'll be shocked at what happens at the end."
To put a top crust on your apple pie or not to put a top crust on your apple pie? That is the question. Photo by Diliaria Garifullina/Unsplash.