Making the crust

Option 1: Using a food processor.

• Cut butter into 1/4 in cubes. Add to food processor with blade attachment. Whisk together dry ingredients, and add to your food processor. Pulse to cut butter into dough, you’ll have pea sized chunks of butter coated in flour. Add discard and lemon juice. Pulse to bring dough together. If needed, add 2-3 Tablespoons iced water. You want dough to just come together but not to be a cohesive mass.
• Transfer to a work surface and use your hands to bring into a dough ball, then cut in half. Wrap each half in plastic wrap, and flatten into a disc. Refrigerate overnight.

Option 2: Mixing by hand

• Grate butter with cheese grater. Which dry ingredients together in a bowl. Add butter, and mix to coat butter. Add discard and lemon juice, and with a pastry whisk bring dough together. Add 1 Tablespoon ice water at a time as needed (I wouldn’t use more than 3), to bring your dough into a ball. Remove from bowl, and knead a minute with your hands to bring it all together. Cut ball in half, and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Flatten into 2 discs and refrigerate overnight or till ready to use.

Baking

• Preheat oven to 375 F. Lightly spray your pie pan (my pie pan is https://amzn.to/3YPj6h3). Roll out pie crust and fit to your 9 inch pie pan. (I used a pastry mat for this which measures and provides non slip surface https://amzn.to/3ACoFWC). Line crust with parchment, and fill with 2 cups dried beans or dry rice, to hold parchment down. Spread out weights to evenly fill pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, and allow to cool before removing parchment and weights. You don’t want a hot crust to melt the top crust. Partially baking your crust avoids a soggy bottom.
• Peel and chop your apples. Combine chopped apples in a bowl with lemon juice, flour, cinnamon, cardamom, cream, and sugars. In a pan, heat 1/2 cup butter on medium heat in large saucepan.
• Transfer apple mixture to large saucepan, and cook for 8-10 minutes, lifting apples off of pan bottom to avoid burning on medium heat. You’ll see a caramel sauce start to form. Transfer filling to partially baked crust.
• Roll out 2nd disc of pie crust and fit on top of apple filling. Decorate as you’d like. Trim edges (always allow extra to hang over as pie crust can shrink when baking). Cut slits in top for ventilation if needed. Crimp edges by pressing down with a fork around the pie edges. Brush top with 1 egg white and 1 Tablespoon water beaten together (you can also use this as a glue to help stick your crust decor to your pie with a small brush). Sprinkle top of pie with 2 Tablespoons with white granulated sugar if desired for crispier crust. Freeze pie while oven preheats to set your crust, then transfer dish to baking sheet to avoid bubbling over while baking.
• Bake at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes, cover with foil and bake additional 30 minutes. Pie should be 195 degrees F internal temperature. Crust should be golden, and apples tender. If crust starts to burn cover with foil loosely and resume baking.
• Allow to cool for 3 hours before serving to fully set up. Pair with fresh vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
• (Note: if decorations come off your pie while baking, at the 30 minute mark use a little egg wash and tweezers to reattach decor. Continue baking after per instructions.)