As American as apple pie.
My favorite apple pie recipe is the old faithful from Joy of Cooking. And I have a confession to make. I always use store-bought pie crust. I made a pie crust from scratch once, but the next time, I needed a shortcut, so I bought one at the store (the rolled ones, not the ones already in the pans). I couldn’t really tell the difference between the two, so I’ve never gone back! I’m a firm believer in making things from scratch when you can really tell the difference. But I also believe in taking shortcuts when you CAN’T tell the difference!
So without further ado, my favorite Apple Pie.
Ingredients
- 5-6 large apples (not, my hubby ate some of my apples, so this pie only had 4 apples)
- 3/4 cup of sugar
- 2-3 tbs all-purpose flour
- 1 tbs lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2 tbs unsalted butter
- 1 store bought piecrust (two for top/bottom) or your favorite homemade crust
Directions
Slice up apples
Toss apples with sugar, flour, lemon juice, cinnamon, and salt. Let stand for 15 minutes, stirring several times.
Lay out pie crust in a pie pan.
Fill pie crust with the apple filling. Dot the filling with butter.
Vent the top crust.
Lay the top crust on the pie and crimp the edges. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
Bake for 30 minutes at 425 degrees. Slip a baking sheet under the pie, reduce to 350 degrees and bake until the fruit feels just tender, 30-45 minutes more. Cool and serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Enjoy!
You know one of the memories your picture evoked for me was helping grandma with her pies. At the end of the pie making process the excess dough would lop over the side of the pie pan. She would run her thumb and forefinger around the rim of the pie pan squeezing the dough tougher in gestures that continued around the rim until she was back at the starting point. The result was little hills and valleys like ripples all around the rim. Sometimes she let me do it, but mine were never as even and my efforts were slow in comparison. Then she would take a knife and run it around the rim just beyond the little ripples (I can hear the sound of the knife scraping against the pie pan). The excess would drop on the table and she would gather it up, roll it together and using the rolling pin flatten it as a new crust. She put in on a cookie sheet, sprinkled it with a little sugar and cinnamon and stick it in the oven with the pie.
The result was wonderful goodness out of the oven for a snack. Try it, you’ll like it.
Thanks for the memory.