One of my first childhood memories of cooking was this recipe. It was not actually taught to me by my mother, although I remember her in the kitchen, it was my sister who first taught me how to make this beloved apple pie. She loved this apple pie SO much she even ate it for breakfast and that was right after Thanksgiving! If you wanted your share, you had to be fairly quick and get your slices in before it was all gone. I think we made two or even three apple pies some years. Most of the time it was just two. Eventually as the years went on we took one of the pies to my oldest brothers house for Thanksgiving Dinner and kept the other one at home for the four of us to share. I remember my mother ever only having a single slice and that was only if it was a really good day.  Otherwise, she always seemed to be watching her weight. It always seemed to be my sister and I eating all the pie. Sometimes even before our other brother could get a single piece.

To this day, I can recall the fond memories of rolling out dough and peeling apples as a child while standing at the dining room table. Which was the ONLY time I ever saw the dark wood tabletop without a tablecloth on it. As a child I was probably standing on a chair.

My sister even made a game out of peeling apples. Whoever could peel an apple and make the longest continuous apple peel won! I think she may have even let me win sometimes, but I’m not sure because she never let me off that easy!

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do. I even still have the original recipe in my mother’s handwriting preserved in a zip lock bag. She has been gone for a while now but the recipe still lives on. Thank you mom.

Ma’s Apple Pie

Serves 8

SPECIAL IMPLEMENTS

(2) 9 inch deep dish Pyrex Pie Plates

Pastry brush

Vegetable Peeler AKA an apple peeler in my house

Pastry blender (optional)  

Pie Filling:

INGREDIENTS:

Peel and slice 5 lbs. of Macintosh apples and divide into two bowls. (Why? Because we did not have one bowl that was big enough to fit five pounds of apples) The large bowl was a 26 cup (now called vintage) Tupperware bowl. The small bowl was half that size.

Large bowl                           Small Bowl

½ cup                                     ¼         cup brown sugar

1 cup sugar                           ½         cup sugar

2 tbsp. lemon juice             1          tbsp. lemon juice

4 tbsp. flour                          2          tbsp. flour

¼ tsp. salt                             dash   tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon                   1          tsp cinnamon

½ tsp. nutmeg                     ¼         tsp. nutmeg

¼ tsp. all spice                     dash   tsp. all spice

Add ingredients over the top of the apples. Mix together the apples and stuff, then cover the bowls with plastic wrap. Now make the crusts.

Homemade Pie Crust (makes enough for one pie)

There is no substitute for a good piecrust when making this recipe, so I suggest start by making the filling first and while it sits as you’re making your piecrust it will produce all the juice you need for your pies.

Crust:

Grease Pie Plate Using shortening (Crisco) and a paper towel

INGREDIENTS

3 cups sifted flour

1 1/8 tsp. salt

1 cup shortening

8 to 10 tablespoons water with ice

DIRECTIONS

In a large bowl, add flour and salt. Cut in shorting using a pastry cutter of knife and fork making small pebble like pieces of shoring covered in flour. Using a wooden spoon and your hands,  mix in the ice-cold water one tablespoon at a time until the dough comes together to form a ball without crumbling apart.

Divide dough into two and shape into balls then thick disks.

Flour your work surface. Place one disk the center of you flour and using a floured rolling pin work from the center out to form the piecrust. Turn and flip the crust to keep it from sticking to your counters surface. Keep rolling out dough until it is just slightly larger than your pie pan by about one inch.  Repeat with second dough ball.

Fold dough in half and place bottom crust in pie dish. Gently press in pie pan. Using a small knife, trim off any excess dough. Fill pie plate with apple mixture. Before putting on the top crust, dot apple mix with small amounts of cold butter. Coat rim with water using you finger. Place on top crust. Press together the crusts at the edge using the tines of a fork to keep the crusts from separating as the pie bakes. Now using a pastry brush, brush on a thin/small amount of milk. This will help the crust get a nice golden brown.

Bake in preheated oven 375° or 400° for approximately 30 to 40 minutes or until apples are soft when poke with a skewer. Oven temps vary so you may need to turn up or down your oven so that the crust is brown and the apples are done at the same time. Timing in life is everything and it is with baking.

Enjoy and I hope all your holidays are happy and healthy.

The Drunken Chef (Russ)