Maple-Glazed Cream Cheese Apple Pie

My favorite apple pie of all time -- the cream cheese mixture is so amazing and perfect that I just cannot go back to regular apple pies. I found a recipe for breakfast apple tarts in Gourmet, Oct. 1994 and changed it around a bit to create this pie.

• Ready In: 1 hr 20 mins
• Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1⁄4 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1  teaspoon vanilla
• 4  medium apples (Empire, Gala, or Golden Delicious)
• 2  tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 (17 1/4ounce) package frozen puff pastry, thawed (2 sheets)
• 1  large egg, beaten lightly with 1 tablespoon water
• 1⁄2 cup pure maple syrup, at least 1/2 cup

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. In a small bowl stir together cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, and vanilla until smooth.
3. Peel, halve, and core apples and cut into 1/4-inch slices. Place apples in a saucepan and cover with maple syrup -- about a 1/2 cup, but eyeball it to your liking. Stir over low-heat until apples are softened. Remove apples and place in a bowl to cool. Do not discard syrup, as you'll use it later for the glaze.
4. Unroll puff pastry and place one sheet inside a 9" baking pan. Spread cream cheese mixture on pastry sheet and top with apples. Place the second pastry sheet on top of the apples and seal the edges by folding pastry sheet edges together. Brush egg wash over top of pie and edges and sprinkle with sugar.
5. Bake pie in middle of oven 30 minutes, or until puffed and golden.
6. Meanwhile, depending on how watery the syrup is from the apples, you might want to add more syrup to the pan. Simmer the maple syrup for 10 minutes, or until reduced to about 1/3 cup.
7. Drizzle hot syrup glaze over warm pie.