Pie Gie

Sunday I finally got the nerve to make that apple pie I'd been threatening to make ever since we went apple picking last Wednesday. The first pie I've ever made.

Here's what I learned: Even with a recipe that has you cook the apples before putting them into shell, pie baking is still all about the crust.

I used a Cook's Illustrated recipe for both the pie and the crust (neither of which are available online, and neither of which do I feel like typing out right now). The crust recipe called for using butter instead of shortening and told you to cut the butter into the flour mixture using a food processor. I don't have a food processor, but a neighbor told me a electric blender should work just as well. Uh-uh. The butter just sat onto of the flour, which was the only thing spinning around. This, sad to say, pissed me off so bad that I dropped the f-bomb in front of the two young-uns.

I called another neighbor, who didn't have a food processor either but did have a hand-held dough blender, which - in the olden days - is what they used to use to blend butter into flour for dough. It was a workout for my arms, but it did the job.

Next was rolling out the dough, and I'm no good at rolling out dough evenly. So it came out uneven, which caused part of the crust to burn cook faster than others (oddly, it was the thicker parts of crust that burned cooked faster). After a little scraping everything turned out pretty nice looking.

The only other problem was that the apples we had were all Gala (that's all that were picking), which aren't real flavorful. But, c'mon, homemade apple pie is still homemade apple pie, so it might not have tasted as good as it could have but it was still pretty good (if I do say so myself).

If I ever sell these things that's the slogan I'm using: "They're not as good as they could be, but they're still pretty good!"

Another thing I learned: Homemade pie is a treat. No way am I making these things as much as I make cookies. The eight-year-old can just stop taking about that homemade Thanksgiving pie right now.

Plus I want a food processor, but I knew that already.

Comments

[albert]

mmmm, sounds yummy.

[Donna]

So, you'll be bringing the pies to Terry's for Christmas?

[Karen]

It looks beautiful!

[Sara J.]

Northern Spies and Granny Smiths are the ONLY apples I will consider for homemade apple pie. Give 'em a try!