Let Them Eat Pie!

No sewing today, maybe tonight. Instead I made an apple pie for tomorrow. Most people are celebrating Thanksgiving with their families, we will be going to our friends' house. Once my children started getting married they were torn between which house to go to or to eat 2 meals and having to drag their little kids from house to house. We decided to have our Thanksgiving as a family on Friday. It is nice because all of them are here together which is what it is all about. It turned out to be a great solution for us! There will be charades after dinner...a family favorite.

I make my pie the way my gramma Aggie did. While I don't have her pie crust recipe, this one turned out pretty good. It is easy in the food processor. I use butter instead of lard (gramma used lard she lived on a farm) and I think the results are just as good.

Put 2 1/2 cups of flour in the processor, add 1 tsp salt and pulse to mix. Add some of the ice cold butter, mine was in the freezer a few at a time and pulse 3 or 4 times. Keep adding until both sticks of butter are pulsed in, do not over pulse.

Add all at once 1/3 of ice water. I put about a half cup of water in a cup with some ice and measure it out into a 1/3 cup. Pulse off and on until it looks like this:

This is important you do not want it to turn into a ball. At this point it should be very easy to stick together when you press it together with your fingers. If not add a tablespoon of water and pulse.

Roll it out in a little flour, I think a granite counter helps out too! Notice mine does not look like a perfect circle. As long as it is about 2 -3 inches larger than your pan it is fine. I am not a neat and orderly cook, you don't have to be either! Just have fun with it!

My recipe for the filling is my gramma's and I don't have a real recipe. I will tell you what I did today. I peeled about 6-7 large granny smith apples and sliced them thin. Add to this about 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, about a cup of sugar, 3 tablespoons of flour and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. I also have put a litte nutmeg in too. Mix them all togther and dump it into your pie shell.

Dot the top with about 2 tablespoons of butter and then cover with your top crust. Make a nice thick edge and it will not burn. Make sure to seal in the apples so the juices do not run out the sides (I messed up and mine ran out the sides). Poke some steam holes on top and trim the extra dough along the edges. Put the pie in the refrigerator while you heat the oven to 425. This is important, the pie should go in the oven cold from the fridge. Bake for 30 minutes, turn the oven down to 350, slide a cookie sheet underneath and bake for another 30 to 45 minutes. The juices should be bubbling through the steam vents.

Take those scraps and sprinkle with a little cinnamon and sugar then bake for about 7 minutes. My mom always did this when we were kids. They are kind of like a little pastry.

A pretty good looking pie, maybe not up to Martha's standards,  but I think they will eat it! Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Kelly