Monday, October 12, 2009

The perfect crop

If I can make my mother in law go "How on earth did you make this crust?" I must be on to something and luckily for you I am sharing my recipe for this amazing apple pie. This is the perfect time for apple picking and I hope you have the chance to get out there and harvest what is supposed to be the best crop of the century, at least up here in Maine. We went apple picking as a family and my daughter ate more apples than she picked, which is fine with me! The orchard we went to had more apples than the branches could hold and it was a treat for the eye. Unfortunately, you have to take my word for it as the batteries in the camera died right before we arrived at the orchard. I will however share with you the view from one of the hills in the area overlooking the White Mountains of Vermont. Fall is a breath taking time in Maine and I hope everyone has a chance to make it up here in their life time. This pie recipe may take up at least an hour of your time but you won't care when you taste it.


The Perfect Apple Pie


Crust:
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 cup chilled shortening
8-10 tbsp. cold milk

Blend the ingredients together with a pastry blender or a knife. Make sure the shortening is cold and place the mixture in the refrigerator until the filling is done. Divide into two equal parts and roll out to two circles slightly larger than the pie plate. Line the pie plate with one pie circle.

Filling:
10-12 golden delicious and cortland apples or any of your fresh favorites
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp vanilla concentrate
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cardamom (if available)
1/8 tsp salt
2 tbsp. butter cut into slices
1 egg
sugar for sprinkling on the pie crust

Pre-heat the oven to 350F.

Slice the apples thinly and put them in a bowl. Pour the lemon juice on the apples and mix. Sprinkle the dry ingredients on top and mix well. Pour the mixture into the crust lined pie plate. Place the sliced butter on top of the apples. This is a large pie with apples piled up as high as possible. The more apples you can pile on it the better. I make mine 5" above the pie plate! Carefully move the second pie crust on top of the apples and pinch the edges together. Cut a hole in the center and little slits all around the pie. Brush the pie with an egg and sprinkle a little sugar on top. Bake at 350F for 1h 20 min. If the pie turns dark, turn the temperature down to 320F and bake a little bit longer.

Let cool for at least an hour and serve with vanilla ice cream or custard.









9 comments:

  1. Oh yum! Sounds perfect and delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a beautiful landscape. I'll bet your home smelled so homey when that pie was a'cookin!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mouth watering! I am such a disaster in the kitchen. I try, but things never seem to turn out right :P

    Those last photos are so beautiful and I miss that about NC. We don't have all those beautiful deciduous trees here.

    ReplyDelete
  4. OH yum...I can smell that apple pie! And the countryside is beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh nice!!!!! The trees are stunning and the pie looks delicious!! Love this time of year!!! xo Cait

    ReplyDelete
  6. a really great time of year ~ love those crunchy apples and that pie looks DELICIOUS!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I like to use Cortland apples also! They have a great sweet taste with a little tartness and they are firm enough to hold their shape and texture after baking- you don't just end up with apple mush in your pie! Unfortunately they're hard to find here in northern IL. There's only one orchard I know of that grows them and it's not a very large crop. They're also one of the last to ripen here, so I can only get them in very late fall.

    ReplyDelete
  8. what a lovely view!

    For some reason I have always thought that these pies looks so much more tasty than "swedish" pies. I will give it a try one day and see if I can make one of these :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. oh my your apple pie looks AMAZING! Can I ask a silly question? By shortening, do you mean butter?
    AND those..trees are stunning, when can I come visit? lol

    ReplyDelete