Miso Apple Pie by Sonoko Sakai

From Wafu Cooking: Everyday Recipes with Japanese Style by Sonoko Sakai.

Meet Sonoko Sakai at Japan Society for a Wafu Cooking Book Talk and Signing

My mother believed that apples taste best when baked in pies. When we were kids, she always baked in the middle of the night, when everyone was asleep. Cool temperatures and peace of mind were high on her list of optimum conditions. But such peace was often disrupted when the smell of baking interrupted the sleep of her five children. We would come down to the kitchen in our pajamas and eat the sliced apples floating in salted water, as my mother hurried to peel more.

My sister Fuyuko, who is a pastry chef, and I have tried for years to replicate our mother’s slab apple pie recipe. Mother passed away a few years ago, but Fuyuko and I eventually came up with a pie she would be proud of. Fuyuko taught me the basics, and I tweaked the apple filling, adding miso to give it a wafu element. Just for fun, I entered it into the KCRW annual pie contest, and it won second place in the apple pie category. My hidden ingredient did wonders!

Learn more about Wafu Cooking at sonokosakai.com

Makes one 9 inch pie

PIE CRUST

16 tablespoons (228 grams) cold unsalted butter

1 ⅜ cups (170 grams) all-­purpose flour

1¼ cups (170 grams) Sonora flour or all-­purpose flour, plus more for dusting

½ teaspoon sea salt

½ cup (120 ml) ice-­cold water

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon cane sugar

FOR THE FILLING

1 batch Miso-­Stewed Apples (below pie crust recipe)

To make the dough, put a piece of parchment paper on a flat surface. Using a box grater, coarsely grate the cold butter onto the parchment. Chill the grated butter in the freezer until it hardens, about 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, blend the flours and salt using a pastry cutter. Add the chilled grated butter and start blending the dry ingredients and the butter until the mixture resembles a coarse meal, with a few large pea-­size lumps of butter remaining.

Make a well in the middle of the dough, and sprinkle in the water. Mix the water into the dry ingredients until the dough is crumbly and hydrated just enough to come together in a shaggy mound. Try not to overmix; bits of butter should still be visible in the dough.

Divide the dough into two even portions, about 9 ounces (255 grams) each. Place each on a piece of plastic wrap and roughly roll out into 7 x 7 inch (18 x 18 cm) squares about ½ inch (1.25 cm) thick. Wrap the dough and place it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

After the dough is chilled, place one portion on a piece of parchment paper. Lightly dust the surface of the dough with flour and place a second sheet of parchment paper on top. Roll out the dough into a square about 10 x 10 inches and ⅛ inch thick (25 x 25 cm x 3 mm). If the dough sticks to the paper, remove the top layer, dust the dough again with flour, put the paper back on top, and continue rolling. Remove the top layer of parchment and prick the surface of the dough with a dough docker or a fork. Re-cover the dough with parchment and put it in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes. Repeat with the remaining dough. Keep both pieces refrigerated until ready to make the pie.

Pull out one piece of dough from the refrigerator and remove the parchment covering. Place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and spread the cooked and chilled apples on top, leaving a ½ inch (1.25 cm) space on the sides. Brush the beaten egg along the sides. Reserve the rest of the beaten egg and put the half-­assembled pie back into the refrigerator.

Pull out the second piece of pie dough from the refrigerator and remove the parchment paper. Cut slits in the dough, each about 9 inches (23 cm) long, across almost the entire length of the slab of dough, leaving about a ½ inch (1.25 cm) border uncut on all sides. The goal is to create a top crust of ½ inch (1.25 cm) thick strips, all attached to each other by the intact border.

Once the top crust has been cut, retrieve the bottom crust with the pie filling from the fridge. Use your rolling pin to gently roll up the top crust. Line up the top and bottom pieces of dough, and gently unroll over the pie filling. Once completed, seal the edges together by gently folding them up and over and crimping. Cover again with a sheet of parchment and allow the whole thing to chill in the refrigerator again for at least 1 hour before baking.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Remove the chilled pie from the fridge and brush the surface with the remaining beaten egg and sprinkle the top with sugar. Bake the pie on the middle rack of the oven until crisp and evenly golden brown, about 1 hour, rotating halfway through to ensure even baking. Remove from the sheet tray and transfer to a cooling rack.

KITCHEN NOTES

For the pie crust, and for all baking, I strongly recommend that you measure by weight and not volume. It is best practice to follow the gram measurements here. If the unbaked sheets of dough become soft and difficult to handle, refrigerate them for about 10 minutes and try again.

STORAGE

You can store the formed pie dough (disc or square) in the freezer for up to 3 months. Wrap it tightly in aluminum foil or store it in a freezer bag. Thaw the pie dough in the refrigerator overnight.

MISO-­STEWED APPLES

Makes about 6 cups (1 kg)

5 large apples (approximately 7 oz/200 grams each)

whole, skin on, preferably honeycrisp, Fuji, or pink lady

Approximately ½ cup (96 grams) cane sugar

(use the equivalent of 15 percent of the weight of the peeled and sliced apples; adjust as needed)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon red miso, plus more to taste (store-bought or use the recipe on Wafu Cooking)

To make the apple filling, wash and peel the apples. Cut them into quarters and remove the cores with a knife. Cut the quarters into four slices, about ½ inch (1.25 cm) thick. Measure the weight of the apple slices on a digital scale. Put them in a medium bowl and add enough sugar to equal 15 percent of the weight of the apples. (For example, if the chopped apples weigh 1,000 grams, you would add 150 grams of sugar.) Add the lemon juice. Mix to combine and let the apples macerate until the sugar dissolves and the apples are juicy, about 1 hour.

Transfer the macerated apples to a medium stainless-­steel saucepan. Cover with a lid and cook over low heat until the apples are soft and translucent, about 30 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon from time to time, being careful not to overcook or burn them. You want the apple slices to retain their shape. Add the miso and gently combine. Taste and add more as needed. The miso flavor will be more pronounced when the apples cool down. Remove from the heat. Cool the apples completely before using.

ROSE AND LEAF DECORATIONS

Do as my sister and I did when baking with my mother and use any leftover dough to make decorative rose petals and leaves. To make roses, roll out the dough and cut out five circles 1 inch (2.5 cm) in diameter. Using your hands, form each circle into a petal shape. For the center of the flower, cut out a strip of dough, roll it, and pinch the bottom slightly. Put one petal around the bud and then the next one, overlapping them slightly until all the petals are attached. Open up the rose petals to make it look like it is in full bloom. To make the leaves, use a small paring knife to carve out the shape of leaves from the pie dough. Score the dough to make it look like a leaf. Refrigerate and rest for 30 minutes before baking.

Preheat the oven at 360°F (182°C). When ready to bake, place the roses and leaves directly on a sheet tray covered with parchment paper. Brush with a beaten egg. Sprinkle sugar on the leaves but not on the roses, to avoid burning the petals. Bake for about 20 minutes for the leaves and 35 minutes for the roses, or until the roses are golden brown. Arrange the roses and leaves on top of the baked pie.

From Wafu Cooking by Sonoko Sakai. Copyright © 2024 by Sonoko Sakai. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Photo by Rick Poon.