Monday, March 25, 2013

Family Pie

Last Fall, I harvested our green apples, peeled, sliced, and combined them with some brown sugar and cinnamon, bagged up a few batches and and put them in the freezer. A couple of months ago I tried making an apple pie using a Pilsbury crust and a crumble topping but the pie turned out like apple sauce with a mushy crust. Bleh! Steve told me that his mom makes the best pie crust, so she emailed it to me, and I tried the recipe last weekend. This pie turned out divine!!! It was the perfect consistency, gooey in the middle, flakey on the top and crispy at the edges. Add a little fancy vanilla ice cream to create a party!



Here's Steve's mom's pie crust recipe:
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2/3 cup shortening
  • 6 - 7 tablespoons ice water
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 pinch of baking powder
Combine flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder. Cut shortening into mixture with pastry blender (I didn't have a pastry blender so I improvised and used a bowl scraper thingy) until pieces are about bean to pea size. Add water one tablespoon at a time and gently mix with a fork. When the dough is all moistened, gather it up with your hands into a ball. Divide in half.....roll to about 1/8" thick. If I have time, I sometimes divide the dough into two balls, wrap in saran wrap and put in fridge for a while. (Not necessary, though).

I use unbleached flour, Crisco yellow butter-flavored shortening, and ice water. The flour, be it unbleached or regular really isn't important, but I think the other two things are. The one time I didn't use the yellow Crisco, I was disappointed, so I always use it.

Side Note: I've never used shortening before and I bought mine before I read this carefully. I am not sure the difference between yellow and not yellow...is this the container color or the actual color of the shortening? Anyway, I bought a blue container of Crisco and the shortening was white, so I guess I used the wrong one, but it was still yummy! 

Okay, back to recipe! I put ice cubes in a cup with the water before I start so the water gets very cold. Salt is important taste.

This makes a large amount for a double crust pie, but I like to be sure I have enough....hate coming up short. I just throw away any extra pieces. If you want just a single crust, just cut the recipe in half.

With a double crust, I always brush the top crust with a little milk and then sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on it.
Bake for about 40 minutes at 400 degrees, or bake until its golden brown!

Enjoy!!



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