Apple Pie

For years I have been making the world’s best apple pie.  No, really.  Ok, maybe it didn’t win international awards, but it did win a baking contest about thirty years ago and has been a part of my family for many many years.  

It was my aunt’s Dutch apple pie recipe.  Then my mom’s.  And finally mine.  

It was our secret, one we made for holidays and random special occasions when the moment permitted.  It was a treasure.  A special something only my family had.  

Then my mom gave it away.  

Yup, she posted it for the world on her blog. 

Now everyone, from here to Australia, can make our super secret special apple pie.  

Everyone.  

The next party I attend, the one for which I would have made our little treasured recipe, will already have an apple pie.  Someone will say they found this amazing recipe online and tell me that I just have to taste it.  They’ll tell me how awesome it is and how much their family loves it.   Then they’ll look down at the apple pie in my hands and say, with a great big smile, that I must have found the same recipe.  What a coincidence!  Isn’t it great!

… um.  No.  

No, it’s not great that my little gift to the world is no longer unique.  The one thing I could actually bake has been abducted by thousands.  The one thing I had to give, the one tangible talent I possessed, is no longer mine.  

Instead, people everywhere can make it.  They’re peeling apples and discussing varieties.  They’re making it for their friends and family and telling them how wonderful it is.  Maybe they’re even sending people to my mother’s blog and showing off the recipe

…and her designs.  Maybe they’re taking one bite of that amazing sweet melt-in-your-mouth pie and smiling.  Maybe they’re sharing that with friends.  Maybe they’re laughing and sneaking just one more taste right from the pie tin before mom covers it up and puts it in the fridge…

Maybe, just maybe, that wonderful piece of hot deliciousness is the last bite of someone’s holiday and the last taste they remember before they go to sleep… 

I know that feeling.  It’s like tasting dreams.  

It’s like taking a bite of the universe and feeding your soul just when you thought nothing else could fill that void…

…it’s family.

Here it is again.  

Share away.  

Priscilla's Prize-Winning Apple Pie

Pre-heat oven to 360 degrees.
Remove a stick of butter from refrigerator for use later.  (Please use real butter here.)

Prepare pastry pie crust for 9"pie.  (Use what you like for this.)

Apples:  Use a combination of apples (approx. 14 apples per pie)
     Baking Apples:  Cortland (8), McIntosh (4), Granny Smith (2) [I personally prefer Empire to Cortland and McIntosh and toss in a Pink Lady, Honeysweet, or Winesap for good measure…but that’s me]
     Some "eating apples" will work, but use them sparingly along with the baking apples.
Peel, core and slice apples into a large bowl.

Combine:
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Sprinkle over apples, coating evenly.

Turn apples into pastry-lined pie plate.  Mound them high, as they will bake down.

Now for the Dutch topping:
Combine:
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
5 Tbls. butter (semi-hard)

Using a table knife, cut in the butter until mixture is "crumbly."  Spread this mixture over the mounded apples.  Pat mixture down gently.

Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Lightly sprinkle sugar on pie crust edges and cover the edge with foil or pie-crust shield.

Place pie on the middle rack in 360 degree oven for 55-60 minutes.  Remove the pie crust shield after 45 minutes.

Check to see that the apples are done.

Remove from oven.

ENJOY!