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Apple pie, like most baked goods, is baked in the oven and has been made the same way for generations. However, it’s not the only way to make this particular pastry. It’s also possible to cook it in a smoker if you don’t have an oven or if you’re just a bit tired with the same pie flavor you’ve experienced all your life. The smoked apple pie recipe is an interesting twist on an already sweet pastry, and you might find that you like it more than regular apple pie. If you have an apple pie recipe you regularly use with your oven, you’ll find that there’s not much difference in the preparation if you decide to switch to a smoker. That said, there may be some tweaks that make all the difference. You are using different pieces of equipment, after all.

Smoked Apple Pie: A Small Twist on the Ordinary Recipe 1

Traeger Grills Apple Pie Recipe

Even though it is called a smoked apple pie, it will not get an actual ‘smokey’ flavor. At the temperature of 375° F that is needed for baking a pie, there will not be enough smoke for that. However, we recommend using applewood to enhance the flavor of your pie.

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Prep Time 1

Cook Time 1

Cooling Time 30

Course Dessert

Servings people

Calories 519 kcal

Equipment

Refrigerator
Knife
Large food processor with steel blades
Rolling board
Plastic wrap
Smoker
Three large bowls
Rubber Spatula
Foil
Pastry cutter
Baking dish

Ingredients

2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cold salted butter
1/2 cup softened salted butter
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup ice water
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Apples

Instructions

Notably, some of these ingredients will need to be subdivided for the different steps in the recipe. They include the flour, dark brown sugar, and granulated sugar. As for the flour, you’ll divide it into 1½ cup, ¼ cup, and ¾ cup sizes. The dark brown sugar will be divided into two ¼ cup portions. As for the granulated sugar, it should be in one ½ cup and one ¼ cup portions. Lastly, you’ll need to peel the apples, remove the cores, and cut them into ¼ inch slices that fill 5½ cups. With that, you’ll be able to start the preparations.
First, you’re going to make the pie crust. This involves cubing the cold butter and putting it in the refrigerator while you work on the flour and a few other components. Bring out your Large food processor with steel blades and put in the 1½ cup flour, the ½ teaspoon kosher salt, and the 2 teaspoon sugar. Notably, reviewers insist the Ninja AMZ493BRN home food processor is suited for these kinds of jobs because of its reliability and the 1200 watt powerful motor. As a side note, it comes with an Auto-IQ feature that determines how long the processor will run for different foods and ingredients, including things like the dough needed for some baking recipes.
That said, for this smoked, salted caramel apple pie recipe, you’ll need to use the pulse feature in your processor. Pulse it until the three ingredients mix. Remove your butter from the refrigerator, add it to the mix and then continue pulsing until each piece of butter is pea-sized.
You can then run the machine continuously while you introduce the ice water slowly. You should stop the processor as soon as the dough starts to come together. You’ll notice that a lot of the components are still unincorporated, but this is by design.
Put flour on your rolling board before pouring out the dough onto it. Follow up by pressing the dough into a ball that you then cover with your plastic wrap before putting it in your refrigerator. Set your phone’s alarm at 30 minutes, so you remember to take out the dough from the fridge.
You then proceed to preheat your smoker to a 375° F temperature. Notably, electric smokers or smokers with automatic temperature control are ideal for this smoked apple pie recipe because you can control the temperature and reduce the chances of undercooking or overcooking the pie.
Users recommend the Pro Series 22 from Traeger Grills as it comes with a controller that monitors and maintains temperatures according to your settings. It also has an auger that automatically feeds pellets to your fire so you can avoid doing it manually.
Notably, there aren’t any limitations on what types of wood pellets you can use for the recipe. We mentioned above that the smoker is to be preheated to 375° F. That said, smokers are most effective at producing smoke at 275°F or lower. Consequently, at 375° F there likely won’t be enough smoke to affect the taste of your pie. However, on the off chance that things get a little too smoky in the device, we recommend using applewood because then it only enhances the flavor in the pie rather than distracts from it.
Unwrap the dough before placing it on a freshly floured rolling board. Use your rolling pin to turn the dough into a 12” round before transferring it to a 9” x 3” baking dish. A similarly sized grill pan could also work for the recipe.
Like with most other pies, you want the dough to have crimped edges in the tin before replacing it in the refrigerator. While that is chilling, start preparing your pie’s filling. Pick another large bowl and mix ¼ cup dark brown sugar, ¼ cup all-purpose flour, ½ teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, the apple slices, and finally ¼ teaspoon nutmeg.
The rubber spatula will come in handy for tossing these ingredients. That said, be careful not to break too many of the apple pieces as you do this. Add the filling to the pie crust after taking it out of the refrigerator. You can then proceed to make the crumb topping.
For this, you’ll have to mix the remaining ingredients, including all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, softened salted butter, and dark brown sugar, in a bowl. While a pastry cutter will work best to combine these ingredients and distribute the butter, a fork should be fine if you don’t have one.
The final mixture needs to be sprinkled evenly over your apples. Worth mentioning is that you can choose to make a crust topping rather than the crumb alternative. The only tweak required is to double the ingredients for the crumb topping before you sprinkle them on the apples.
Assuming the smoker is preheated enough, you throw your pie in there, close the lid or door for your smoker, and wait for 60 minutes. Once it’s out of the smoker, it needs to cool for 30 minutes before it’s served.

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Nutrition

Calories: 519kcalCarbohydrates: 75gProtein: 5gFat: 23gSaturated Fat: 15gCholesterol: 61mgSugar: 42g

Useful Tips

Just like with other pies, there’s a chance the pie crust edges may cook too quickly. In this case, covering them with foil may help slow this down for more even cooking. Also, make sure you don’t serve it hot right out of the smoker. You need to let it cool for at least 30 minutes; otherwise, the filling will be too loose, which may interfere with portioning. If you wait the designated 30 minutes, you’ll find that the pie slices much easier.

The refrigeration parts of the recipe may seem unnecessary but are important, so you shouldn’t skip them. In fact, they help the pie crust hold its shape for a more aesthetically pleasing result.

Next, use crisp apple cultivars. According to Orange Pippin, Jonagold Trusted Source Apple - Jonagold - tasting notes, identification, reviews A very popular commercial variety, with a good flavour. Inherits many of the good qualities of its parents Jonathan and Golden Delicious. www.orangepippin.com apples are crispy to bit into and thus fit the bill for this recipe. While the primary color for this cultivar is yellow, it also has large flushes of red. According to The Daily Meal Trusted Source A Handy Guide to the Most Popular Apple Varieties and Their Uses Apples may be the perfect fruit, and there are a lot of varieties out there that we bet you haven’t tried yet. www.thedailymeal.com , other examples of crisp apple varietals you can choose from are Gala, Honeycrisp, Golden Delicious, Braeburn, and more.

Lastly, be sure you’ve thoroughly cleaned the smoker before you start the recipe. Meat flavors and smells tend to linger in a smoker and may find themselves in your pie if you’re not careful. Notably, this can ruin the results of the recipe.

Final thoughts

While this recipe doesn’t exactly result in a smoked dish, the equipment used is a smoker, and in that sense, the name is appropriate. As we mentioned above, it’s quite the interesting twist to your normal thanksgiving pie, and the taste is slightly different. Nevertheless, some people consider the taste of smoked apple pie superior to that of regular apple pie. We can’t offer you a definitive verdict on this. However, you can make the recipe at home and decide this for yourself.