Apple pie is just about perfect in every way: there are a million different options of what to have with it (ice cream? coffee? milk? cool whip?), and it's surprisingly easy to make. A homemade pie is no more difficult than opening a can of pie filling and putting it in a premade crust, and afterwards, you won't have that "did I just eat dessert? I don't remember..." feeling.When you have some real pie, you remember it.
And then you'll eat too much and you'll regret it, but oh well. That's your own fault, you pig.
Last night, bored with the usual two-crust pie, I saw a picture in my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook of a fruit pie where they used cookie-cutters and just laid them in a design on top.
And behold: PIE!!!!
It was very good, proven by the fact that I ate way too much of it for dessert and way too much of it for breakfast. This is a basic two-crust apple pie recipe, but try the cookie cutter trick if you want. It just adds some, er, cuteness.
(This recipe is from this wonderful cookbook.)
Pastry
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (if you don't have ap, you can usually substitute cake flour)
3/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup shortening
8-10 tbsp water
Stir the flour and salt together. Cut in the shortening, using either a fork or, preferably, a pastry blender.
Add a tablespoon of water to the flour mixture, fluff it with a fork, and try to keep it aside in the bowl. Do that, one tablespoon at a time, until all the flour is moist. Divide the flour mixture in half and roll each half into a ball.
Roll dough into a circle (about 12 in. in diameter). Wrap the pastry around the rolling pin and carefully unroll it onto a 9-in. pie plate. Try not to stretch the pastry too much. Make sure the pastry is about level with the edge of the pie plate.
Filling
6 cups thinly sliced apples (I like Granny Smith apples, and if you cut the slices thin enough, there's no need to peel them)
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp ap flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/3 cup dried cranberries ('Craisins' are great for this)
Mix the flour, sugar, and spices in one bowl, and then add the apple slices and cranberries. (I coat the apples by pouring the whole mixture back and forth from one bowl to another; it works quite well.)
Transfer the mixture into pastry-line pie plate.
With the remaining ball of pastry dough, roll it into a circle wide enough to cover the pie plate. Put it on top and crimp the edges of the pastries together. Cut slits in the top pastry.
To make sure the edges don't get too brown or, worse yet, burned, use aluminum foil. Take a long enough sheet of it, cut it in half, fold/crimp the edges together around the pie plate, and fold/crimp the ends together. Fold the top down slightly over the pie.
Bake in a 375 degree oven for 40 minutes. Take off the foil, and bake the pie for another 20 minutes.
Remove from oven.
Devour.
