Grilled Apple Pie

My in-laws have the cutest apple trees in their yards. They are crooked and twisted, the perfect climbing trees for small children. Or, as it happens, my dog Peanut. He LOVES to climb the trees and pick his own little green apples, and then carries them around all day, snacking on them whenever he feels the need. 

Sadly, we had a storm a few days ago and one of the trees didn't make it. All the apples were picked off the tree, bagged up and deposited on my kitchen counter. There were way too many to eat by themselves, and they were a little tart anyway. I wanted to make a really simple, rustic apple tart with them. My parents were visiting this weekend, and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to do some baking. I planned on making a tart I found on Smitten Kitchen's blog, but during the baking process my parents and I started having way too much fun throwing in handfuls of this and that, and we ended up with a totally unique creation. It went from an apple tart to an apple pie, something to be put into the oven to something we grilled, and we even made a complementary sauce for on top of ice cream!! Haha, yeah, we had fun! We had to sit down and seriously contemplate what it was we put into it. We think we have it all down, even if there are no specific quantities of anything. But hey, what's rustic baking without directions like "a handful of this and a handful of that" anyway? 

Grilled Apple Pie the Wright Way!

Dough:

2 cups flour

12 tablespoons butter, softened

2 teaspoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix the ingredients with two forks until it resembles cornmeal. 

With your hands, form into a ball. 

Refrigerate for 30 minutes or so, or for however long it takes you to get the apples ready. 

Filling:

1 bag of little green apples (how's that for an exact quantity, huh?!) 

3 or 4 handfuls of brown sugar

1 lemon

4 teaspoons cinnamon, or more or less, whatever you want

2 Tablespoons sugar

Bourbon. We aren't exactly sure how much we put in here, we just kinda glubbed it in. Maybe 1/4 a cup?

2 tablespoons melted butter

Peel, de-core and slice the apples into thin slices. 

Squeeze the juice of a lemon over the apple slices as you go to keep the apples from browning.

Mix in the rest of the ingredients. 

Assembling:

3 tablespoons sugar

1 egg white

Butter sides and bottom of a 10" cast iron skillet.

Press half the dough into the bottom of the pan, and as far up the sides as you can get them (don't be exact here, whatever the dough wants to do is fine, remember, this is rustic!!)

With your hands, scoop out the apples and put them on top of the dough in the cast iron. Leave the juices in the bowl, but don't discard them. 

Take the other half of the dough and place it on the apples. You can either roll it out or tear off small chunks with your hands and pat them on top. Cut some slits into the top of the pie crust.

Brush an egg white over the top dough.

Sprinkle 3 tablespoons sugar over the top of the pie. 

Grill until its bubbly and golden!

Apple Ice Cream Topper Sauce Stuff: (hehe)

Take the peelings from the apples, 1/2 cup of sugar, and the juices from the pie filling and place them in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Allow to simmer for 20-25 minutes or so, stirring occasionally,  until the sugars have caramelized and the apples peels are soft and cooked down. Strain the peels out and allow to cool to room temperature, or just not boiling any more. Dribble on top of ice cream, or however else you want to use it!