Hot Orchard Apple Spice Pie

I've been making apple pies for Thanksgiving for the last few years now. It's become a yearly staple. Matt took one of them to work last week for a competition. I lost out to another apple pie that came with a drizzle. I consider that cheating. Despite not bringing home the gold, there wasn't any pie to bring home at all as Matt's co-workers devoured it. My apple pie may need to become a weekly staple instead of a yearly one. Anyways, I promised that if I won the competition, I would share the recipe. Even though I didn't win, a massive demand for the recipe came from many readers. So here it is.

Hot Orchard Apple Spice Pie

This batch actually makes two pies. Because I'm making these for Thanksgiving however, I'm doing one non-spicy and one spicy because my mother in law has a sensitive palette and I'm an awesome and thoughtful daughter in law. So if you're wanting to make it less spicy, just cut out the hot items and it'll still make your mouth water.

• 8 pounds Granny Smith Apples
• 4 Tablespoons of Butter
• 2 cups Granulated Sugar
• 2 Chai Spice Tea Bags
• 1 Cup Water
• 4 Tablespoons Cinnamon 
• 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
• 1 Teaspoon Sea Salt
• 1/2 Teaspoon Chinese Five Spice
• 1/2 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
• 1/4 Teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes

* For the pie crust, I make my own half of the time. When I'm in a rush or have a whole Thanksgiving meal to prepare, I buy the frozen Pillsbury Dough Pie Crusts. They've worked really well for me in the past. If you're wanting to make your own pie crust, I recommend Pioneer Woman's Perfect Pie Crust.

Take a large bucket and peel all of your apples. After tossing aside the peels, quarter the apples and then take out the core and seeds. Put them back in the bucket and rinse with cold water to get rid of any remaining seeds. Slice the apples to your preference and set aside to drain.

In the largest pot you can find (or preferably two considering the massive amount of apples) add the butter and heat the pan to medium high until bubbly. Turn the heat down to medium and add the apples and the salt. Meanwhile add the tea bags to the water and microwave for two minutes and let it sit for five minutes. Stir the apples every few minutes to get equal cooking on all pieces until fork tender, then turn the burners down to the lowest setting. Remove the tea bags from the water and add tea mixture to apples and stir. Add sugar, brown sugar, Chinese five spice and cinnamon and stir together. Cook five minutes on the lowest setting.

If you're wanting to make the pie spicy now, add the red pepper flakes and cayenne pepper. Stir together.

Around this point the apple mixture may have a lot of juice. If it's runny, I add a small mixture of cornstarch and water to thicken it up the way one would with gravy. The perfect consistency of the apple mixture is if you'd be able to eat them on their own using a fork and not a spoon. Make sense? When the mixture has reached this consistency, remove it from the heat and let it cool.

 Preheat oven to 375.

When it's a little warmer than room temperature, add filling to pie crusts and cover with second pie crust for topping. If you're making a regular AND a spicy pie, make sure to mark them appropriately. I usually cut slits in the pie in a certain way to distinguish one from the other.

Place in oven and bake until the crust is nice and brown (approximately 45-60 minutes).

Naturally let it cool before you take a bite, but eat it warm. You just don't get the full effect of the awesomeness when it's served cold. I make my pies Tuesday nights when I plan on serving them for Thanksgiving and I just reheat in the oven on the day of.

Tips:

• Place the pies on a large cookie baking sheet, or a layer of tin toil when they go in the oven. There's a strong chance that they could overflow a bit and drip on your oven. 
• If the top starts cooking too fast, cover the top with tin foil for a while in the oven to keep from burning.
• You can also add a crumble instead of a top crust and the pie turns out just as amazing!