Rick Poon/Alfred A. Knopf
Sonoko Sakai’s miso apple pie recipe celebrates kakushi aji, or the Japanese idea of including a secret ingredient that elevates an entire dish
Apple pie is a Thanksgiving classic, but sometimes classics can stand to be revamped. Enter Sonoko Sakai’s miso apple pie recipe from her most recent cookbook, Wafu Cooking. Sakai’s apple pie is a tribute to the simple slab pie recipe her mother made when Sakai was growing up, but spruced up with the salty, earthy addition of miso.
“In Japanese culture, there’s this idea of kakushi aji, which is a secret agent that adds depth to a dish without really distracting [from it],” Sakai explains. The miso fills that role in this recipe: “It’s the supporting actor that really elevates the star of the dish, which is apple.” To get the right punchiness of salt and umami, Sakai relies on red miso rather than white, which tends to be milder. It makes a balanced match with the autumnal sweetness of the apples — so much so that Sakai won second place in a pie contest with this very pie.
And if we’re already breaking the mold of classic apple pie by adding miso, why not ditch the pie pan entirely? “I come from a family of five kids and my mom had to feed a lot of people,” Sakai says. “That’s where the slab pie idea came from — my mom loved to bake in big sheets.” Released from the confines of the pan, the pie is more freeform. You can adjust the crimping any way you want, plait elaborately, or just unroll the chilled dough over the filling to create a giant Pop-Tart. “You still get the exact same kind of pie,” Sakai says, “but it’s easier to cut into rectangles rather than wedges. Why not have a square pie?”
You can also ditch the pie crust. Sakai’s stewed miso apples, the pie’s warm and comforting filling, also make a great topping for scoops of ice cream, pancakes, and waffles. “In my culture we put miso in a lot of our sweet dishes,” Sakai says. “It’s this cultural exchange that happens and it’s doing it in harmony.” Sakai even suggests amplifying the amount of miso and serving the apples as a side dish to a Thanksgiving main, like ham or duck. For Sakai, a Thanksgiving spread does not need to be conventional to be delicious.
Miso Apple Pie Recipe
From Wafu Cooking
Makes one 9-inch pie
Ingredients:
For the Pie Crust
16 tablespoons (228 grams) cold unsalted butter
1⅜ 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 (see below)
Instructions:
Step 1: 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.
Step 2: 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.
Step 3: 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.
Step 4: 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.
Step 5: 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.
Step 6: 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.
Step 7: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.
Step 8: 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.
Step 9: 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.
Miso-Stewed Apples Recipe
Makes about 6 cups (1 kg)
Ingredients:
5 large apples (approximately 7 ounces/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 store-bought red miso, plus more to taste
Instructions:
Step 1: 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.
Step 2: 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.
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. Photographs by Rick Poon, copyright © 2024.
