Apple Pie

To bring a loved one home, bake an apple pie and place it near a window to cool.

Apple Pie

• 5-6 large or 6-8 medium apples
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 3/4 to 1 cup sugar
• 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• dash salt
• 1 Tbsp butter
• Pastry for 2-crust, 9-inch pie

1. Wash, core, peel and thinly slice apples into large bowl.
2. If apples are sweet or bland-tasting, toss with lemon juice.
3. If apples are very tart, don't use the lemon juice.
4. In a small bowl combine sugar, flour, spices, dash of salt.
5. Mix dry ingredients with apples.
6. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
7. Line a 9-inch pie plate with rolled-out pastry.
8. Fill with apple mixture.
9. Dot with butter.
10. Add top crust and seal, fluting edges with fingers.
11. Cut slits in top to allow steam to escape.
12. Sprinkle top crust with sugar (optional, I usually don't).
13. Bake in preheated 400 degree F oven for 40 minutes or till done.

American Honey Apple Pie

The Salem Cross Inn, a 1705 farmhouse in West Brookfield, Massachusetts, hosts the New England Beehive-Oven-Baked Apple Pie Contest. The pies are baked in the Inn's 300-year-old brick beehive oven. This recipe was the winner in 1993 and was still on the Inn's Thanksgiving menu in 1995.

• 1/3 cup honey
• 2 Tbsp white granulated sugar
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp ground cinamon
• dash salt
• 2 Tbsp margarine or butter, melted
• 6 to 8 medium cooking apples (7-1/2 cups) such as Rome Beauty, Granny Smith, Jonathan, or Winesap peeled and sliced.
• 1 recipe rich pastry for double-crust pie
• 1 beaten egg
• 1 Tbsp coarse sugar

1. Line pie plate with pastry
2. Mix together honey, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, salt.
3. Toss sugar mixture with peeled and sliced apples.
4. Put apple mixture in pastry-lined pan.
5. Top with pastry.
6. Prick pastry top with fork to make vents.
7. Brush pastry top with beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
8. Bake pie in bottom third of preheated 425 degree F oven, 15 minutes.
9. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F, bake 40 minutes or until pie crust is golden, apple filling is bubbly, and apples are soft when pierced with knife through vent.
10. Remove from oven and cool pie in pan placed on rack.

Sugar Crust Apple Pie

A recipe from Canadian Living magazine.

Filling:

• 8 cups (2-1/4 lbs) peeled, thinly sliced tart apples
• 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
• 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Pastry:

• 3/4 cup vegetable shortening
• 3 Tbsp softened unsalted butter
• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup ice water

Glaze:

• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 Tbsp water
• 2 tsp white granulated sugar

Make Pastry:

1. In a bowl, beat shortening and butter together until smooth.
2. Stir in flour and salt to make a coarse mixture.
3. Pour in 1/2 cup icy cold water at once, stir until a loose dough forms.
4. Flour your hands.
5. Gather dough into 2 equal-sized balls.
6. Pat each ball into a round 2 cm (3/4 inch) thick.
7. Wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour or until chilled.
8. On a well-floured surface with a well-floured rolling pin, roll out a round of dough to a 13" diameter circle, lifting pin at edge to maintain thickness.
9. Loosely roll dough around rolling pin, unroll over a 9" pie plate.
10. Use a sharp knife to trim dough even with edge of pie plate.

Filling:

1. In a bowl, mix together cinnamon, flour, sugar.
2. In a larger bowl, toss peeled and sliced apples with lemon juice and sprinkle the cinnamon mixture over apples, toss to coat.
3. Scrape apples into pastry-lined pie plate.
4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Finish Pastry:

1. Brush trimmed edge of pastry with water.
2. Roll out second round of pie dough to same-size circle.
3. Using rolling pin, without stretching, drape pastry over apples.
4. Trim, leaving 2 cm (3/4 inch) overhang, then fold under rim of bottom pastry.
5. Press together to seal.
6. Using thumb and index finger, twist rim to form a raised scalloped edge.
7. With sharp knife, cut steam vents in centre of pie.

Pastry Glaze:

1. Whisk egg yolk with 1 Tbsp water.
2. Brush egg mixture over top of unbaked pastry crust.
3. Sprinkle with 2 tsp sugar.

Bake Pie:

1. Bake pie in bottom third of preheated 425 degree F oven, 15 minutes.
2. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F, bake 40 minutes or until pie crust is golden, apple filling is bubbly, and apples are soft when pierced with knife through vent.
3. Remove from oven and cool pie in pan placed on rack.