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Traditional, Scratch Ingredient, Mom-Style Apple Pie:CRUST:
2 Cups flour, sifted
1 tsp Salt (less if desired)
3/4 cup vegetable shortening
5-6 TBSP cold water.
First, combine all the dry ingredients. Then add the shortening and water. Combine aggressively with two knives or your hand (you want a coarse, yet coherent meal like consistency). Shape into a ball, wrap up and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Once the dough is ready for use, using a rolling pin, roll out one third to one half of the whole on a clean surface. Roll it out fairly thin. The size of your sheet of dough must exceed the size of the pie pan significantly.
Lay this sheet of dough on top of your pie pan. Do not trim - just leave the excess on the outside of the pan for now.
FILLING:
6-7 cups Granny Smith apples, sliced, cored, peeled and cut into pieces.
Place apples into a large pan.
Combine Separately:
3/4 cup sugar (less if desired)
1 TBSP flour
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt (if desired)
Mix (toss) these dry ingredients through the apples. Now heat the apples in the pan. Dot them with 2 TBSP of butter. Let everything heat up on medium heat until all the sugar/butter is melted and all spices have gone into solution and everything is evenly distributed over apples. Mix constantly. It's ready when it smells like Heaven.
Lay this mixture onto the bottom pie crust (already in pan). Now roll out the top crust with remaining dough and lay this new dough sheet on top of the pie filling. Seal together by pressing hard against edge of pie tin with a fork. Cut away excess dough.
Now cut some vents in the top. Moisten the top (spray bottle) and sprinkle very lightly with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon then again with just cinnamon.
Now, lay a huge sheet of foil or something protective down in your oven underneath the pie. This protective sheet should have edges folded up so that it can catch pie drippings that escape and boil over.
Bake at 425 degress F for about 30 mins. Check it. The top crust probably looks done now but the pie filling needs more time. Cut a doughnut/ring shape out of foil and place this on top of the pie at this time, with the shiny side UP. Bake for another 20 mins.
Pie is done when crust is brown and apples are tender.
Enjoy!
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