Danny's maternal grandmother, Nancy Buchanan, a.k.a. Maia's great grandmother, was a sweet, sweet lady. I think of her a lot around Thanksgiving. We used to go to her house every Thanksgiving and have a wonderful feast. We would leave her house with a bag of pecans that she shelled by hand. We would go out and hunt for them in the backyard in the days and weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. We miss her every year. I am so thankful for this little recipe book she wrote out for Danny. I make a few of his favorites, but of course they aren't as good as Grandma's. This past Sunday Maia and I decided to make her apple pie. This is honestly the BEST apple pie. It is SO good. Tons of cinnamon, try it out and enjoy.
Pie Crust:
1 1/2 C flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 C shortening
3T to 4T ice water
Filling:
6 medium sized apples peeled, cored and sliced
1 C sugar (if apples are tart use 1 1/2 C sugar)
1T of cinnamon
1T of butter (for dotting the pie)
Mix pie crust ingredients until it comes together. Try not to overwork it or allow your hands to warm the shortening too much. Keeping it cold will allow you to get nice flaky layers. If you over work the flour it will devolop more gluten and it will end up as a tough crust. Divide the dough in 1/2. Roll each 1/2 out to 1/4" crust. One for the top, and one for the bottom. Place the bottom crust in your pie plate.
Mix sliced apples, sugar and cinnamon. If the apples are very juicy, at 2T of flour. Mix until the sugar coats all the apples. Place in your pie plate. Next comes dotting the butter. This was Maia's favorite part. I have no idea why. She said it was "cute."
Slice the cold butter into small pieces and dot it all over the pie.
Then roll the second crust over the top, tuck in the ends and try to meet the seems up. Crimp the edges. There are many way to do this. We pinched our crust. You can use a fork, or flute the edge with your fingers. You decide. Then bake it for 45 minutes. You may want to wrap the edges in foil so they don't burn. I used a metal baking ring that covers the crust's edge and removed it for the last 10 minutes of baking. I got one as a gift a year or so ago, and I love it!!
My beautful pie.
We cut out 3 small stars using a tiny fondant cutter, and then made 3 lines to vent the pie to help the steam escape.
This pie was so fun to make. Maia peeled and sliced 3 of the 6 apples. She really enjoyed it. She's working on her knife skills and peeling skills and was so patient. While we were peeling the apples when she was done with 1 she would carry it out to Danny to inspect. She was so proud of her work. It was a lot of fun.
Note: I didn't seal my crust very well, and it overflowed a bit, but it was still amazing. I used Honeycrisp apples that my mother-in-law gave me. They are seriously the best! I used 1 C of sugare and added 2 TBL of flour since they were pretty juicy. We also cut into the pie while it was still VERY hot, and the filling ran out a bit. If you let it cool, it will congeal and actually stick together when you cut a slice. Mine didn't, therefore...no pretty slice of pie to show you. It was amazingly delicious. I had it for lunch. HA! Enjoy.
Dedicated to Grandma Buchanan.
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