It’s been three years since the last time life thrust a big bag of free apples into my hands. That was back when I was living in Poland–I made them into applesauce and cider, and blogged about it over on Making Places.

So this week, when my partner brought home several bags of cortland apples from the farm, I was pumped. I’ve already made two apple pies this week, and I’ve got applesauce on my mind, too…

Here’s my recipe for apple pie:

Basic pie dough from the Joy of Cooking
(I use this recipe so often–mostly for chicken pot pie–that my Joy of Cooking falls open to this page)

Combine:

2 C. all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

Add half of:
2/3 C. lard and 2 Tbs. chilled butter*

Mix the shortening and flour until it has the consistency of cornmeal, then cut the other half of the shortening into the mixture until it is pea sized.

Sprinkle the dough with 4 Tbs. water, adding 1 tsp.-1 Tbs. extra if needed to form a ball. Once it forms a ball, stop handling it, and put it in the fridge.

This makes enough dough for two crusts (in this case, top and bottom crust).

*I just use all butter because I can’t be bothered to make or buy lard… It works fine, but I’m sure lard would make it extra good.

Apple pie filling
7-8 apples (I’ve been using 6 cortlands/2 granny smith), chopped/sliced (chop the cortlands, slice the granny smith)
3 tsp. lemon juice
2/3 C. brown sugar
1/4 C. granulated sugar
3 Tbs. cornstarch
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Toss the apples with the lemon juice. Combine the rest of the ingredients. When ready to assemble the pie, coat the apples thoroughly with the sugar mixture.

Roll out the bottom crust and spread it into a 9-inch pie plate. Place the sugar-coated apples in the pie. Roll out the top crust and place it over the top of the pie. Cut off any extra dough around the edges and pinch the crusts together. Cut several slits into the top crust to allow steam to escape.

You can wrap aluminum foil around the pie crust edges to keep it from over-browning–remove the foil 5-10 minutes before the pie is done baking.

Bake the pie for 60-75 minutes. It’s done when the crust is golden-brown and the juices inside are boiling and somewhat reduced–you can usually see that through the slits in the top crust.

This has worked out beautifully twice this week already. If you try it out, let me know what you think!

Anyone else have great suggestions for a big apple harvest? Other wonderful pie recipes?

 

September 16, 2011

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