Apple Pie

Local taste, apples, lard… The recipe for the crust is courtesy Rhonda Welcome, who led a workshop about apple pie crusts at MOFGA‘s Common Ground Fair this year.

The goal is a flaky crust, which means successful dough will feel very dry when rolled. Only add water in dire times. Finally, cold is the key to success, so it helps to plan ahead by refrigerating your mixing bowl and rolling pin. You can even spread the recipe out a few days and refrigerating the dough in plastic wrap.

Sift two and a half cups of flour, two tablespoons brown sugar, and one teaspoon salt into a cold bowl and mix (if you haven’t a cold bowl, do this over another bowl full of ice cubes). Mix in with your fingers either a half cup of butter or a half cup of rendered lard with a dash of vinegar. It should have the texture of cornmeal when the fat is mixed in. Add five tablespoons of cold, cold water and gently fold the dough into itself, incorporating the wet and dry. Squeeze the arid dough into two balls. Roll out one ball and fit it over over a pie pan – no need to grease it – and another to be placed on top.

For the filling, use six cups of peeled and sliced apples, one tablespoon of cinnamon, a quarter teaspoon of nutmeg, and three-quarter cups of brown sugar. Mix all this together, then spread over the bottom layer of crust. Cover with the top crust and seal the edges, trimming any excess, and poke holes in the top layer of crust.

Bake at 400 for about 50 minutes. I’ve read of, though I’ve never tried, folding aluminum foil around the edges for the first 40 minutes to keep the edges of your crust from burning. Let the pie cool quite a bit if you want a clean slice – but who can wait, anyway?

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