The Home Cook: Pie Crust & Apple Pie

If you live in the Northern Hemisphere...this is the completely WRONG time of year for this post. Trust me I know, I'm the one who spent Saturday making the pie. The thing is, on Saturday we had drifts of snow measured by the foot, so with that in mind, pie making seemed perfectly reasonable. Well, it seemed reasonable to me.

After digging out the drive-way, fixing the garage door and finally seeing the neighborhood for the first time in 30 hours the idea of a slice of pie seemed divine...if not slightly crazy. So after a jaunt to the store (Because really, what's a blizzard if you have milk, eggs and bread in the house?) I was back at home, madly cooking...well, technically, I guess it would be baking. And frankly, I was glad the hankering for some good ol' pie had struck because it meant that I had a reason to bust out the new pie crust recipe I've been mastering since Christmas. My old stand-by crust recipe was the classic Better Homes and Garden Pie Crust recipe that has been in circulation since...well, possibly since the days of Moses, and it is a good solid recipe. Idiot proof, hearty and simple it is the pie crust recipe of the masses. Thing is, I've always found it a little dense, kind of heavy...not The Best Crust Ever. Good, but not great. Which is why I've been on the look out for a new crust recipe, some thing with a little more flake. Then the Internet bashed me over the head with what I was looking for.

If you read more than two food blogs, you've probably noticed something...there tend to be crazy hot food trends...there was the No Bake Bread Craze or the Dulce de Leche Hullabaloo (just to name a few) but right around Christmas time it seemed like the foodie blogging world caught absolute fire with the Vodka Pie Crust. The promise of flaky crusts floated from blog to blog, little variations and quirks, here, there and everywhere....but I don't know. Vodka, pie crust...it seemed reasonable...baking + evaporation = flaky. The theory seemed to hold water, but the comments, reviews all seemed wildly uneven...some loved it, some hated it. What was a girl to do. Then I found this, a Vinegar pie crust, and that's when the memory beat me over the head. My almost-grandma made a pie crust like this and it was GREAT. I was sold, and I've never looked back. I love this crust. It's a flake factory, it's delicious and quite possibly perfect.

Pie Crust
From Thepioneerwoman.com...see her tutorial, for an awesome pie crust 'How To'

3 cups Flour
1 teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 cups Shortening
1 Egg, lightly beaten
5 Tablespoons Cold Water
1 Tablespoon White Vinegar

Blend together flour and salt. Cut in Shortening using a pastry blender or two knives. Add in remaining ingredients and mix until just blended and dough begins to loosely form a ball. Separate into thirds, seal into plastic bags and lightly flatten into disks. Freeze for future use or set in freezer for 20 minutes if you want to use it right then and there.

After 20 minutes in the freezer, lightly flour surface, pull dough from bag and roll out for a single pie crust. Follow recipe instructions for blind baking or for pie.

Cook's Notes:

This is a bit of a sticky dough, so work fast from the freezer and make sure to have your work surface and your rolling pin floured. You also might want to flip the dough over half way through rolling it out and re-flour the bottom...just sayin'.

For that elusive buttery crust...I use butter flavored shortening. Yup, I'm going to hell and I don't care.

As for the apple pie... the filling from the The Old Fashioned Apple Pie recipe from Simply recipes cannot be beat. Seriously. Very good....though I haven't tried the crust portion of the recipe...yet.

Old Fashioned Apple Pie - Filling
From Simply Recipes

2/3 cup Sugar
3 Tablespoons Flour
1/4 teaspoon Allspice
1/8 teaspoon Nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
3 pounds of Apples, peeled, cored and sliced in 1/8"-1/4" slices
1 1/2 teaspoons Brandy
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Egg Wash
1 Egg Yolk
1 Tablespoon Cream

Mix ingredients, and place in a crust lined deep dish pie pan slightly heaped in the center. Cover with top crust, roll or pinch edges. Brush top with egg wash and cut slits in the top crust.

Bake in the third rack position at 375 for 20 minutes, reduce heat to 350 and bake an additional 30-45 minutes depending on apple type or until filling is bubbly and crust is golden. If pie edges brown too quickly, wrap with foil of cover with a pie protector. Remove from oven and let stand for 1 hour. Serve warm with ice cream.

Cook's Notes:

There are a million types of apple in the world, I like a blend of Braeburn's and Granny Smith's when I make pie.