All American Apple Pi{e}

I love apple pie. When I lived in Hawaii I remember being the most homesick when I talked to my dad one evening as they were about to cut into a big apple pie in the back yard, watching the sun go down. Not many things say summer like an apple pie. 

I also love that I am married to a math genius whose favorite number is 3.14. When March 14 comes around it means pi{e} at our house. 

I made the pie crust the night before and forgot to take any pictures but I will still include the recipe. I believe this is my great grandma's recipe. This crust comes out so flaky and light, I have tried a ton of other recipes but I always come back to this one. It's perfect.

Pie Crust

5 Cups flour

2 Cups Crisco shortening

2 tsp salt

Cut these together with a pastry cutter until the mixture has the texture of coarse corn meal with small pea size chunks of shortening hanging out in there.

In a 1 cup measure whip together:

1 egg

1 Tab white vinegar

Fill the cup with ICE cold water

Pour over the flour/shortening mixture and toss together with a fork until it just begins to come together. Divide the dough and wrap in plastic wrap.

This will make 4-5 crusts so half the recipe if you are making one double crust pie like I did. 

You will also need some Granny Smith apples. I have tried other kinds but I like the tartness of Granny Smith's and I like that they hold up nicely when they bake. I usually use 8 large apples

 Peel up the apples

 Then slice them up, not paper thin, not super thick. Technical, I know.

Then drop a few on the floor, you know, for good luck...

 Then gather up the rest of the things you will need:

For the filling I use

8 Large Granny Smith apples
1/4-1/2 Cup flour
1/2-2/4 Cup white sugar
1 tsp-ish cinnamon
1 Tab lemon juice
Toss them all together and taste an apple or two to see if it needs more sugar or cinnamon.

The next step is to roll out your dough. Now, I had mine in the fridge over night so I pulled it out and let it rest on the counter while I was peeling and slicing my apples. If you make the crust the same day as the pie you will want to make it first and let it sit in the fridge while you do the apples. Confused yet?

I don't know any better way to roll out pie crusts or biscuits (recipe here) than on a pastry cloth. You can see how well loved mine is. It's the best!

 Roll it nice and big and then place it carefully in the pie plate. I cut the edges off of mine on the bottom crust when the plate has a nice wide rim.

Now pour the apples right in there

Roll out the the top crust, pop it on top, trim the edges and give them a nice crimp

With a sharp paring knife carve out the letter Pi on top (or some other kind of vent)

Throw that sucker in the oven at 350* for around an hour

Then just bask in it's glory. Ooooh Aaaahh!

We took our Pi{e} to some new friends' house to celebrate the day with them. You know when you meet someone new and you just know instantly that you are going to be great friends. Yeah, these people were like that. It's intimidating to make new friends sometimes but these guys were great to hang out with!

I didn't get any pictures last night but this morning I did eat a nice slice for breakfast. Is there anything that beats pie for breakfast?

Let me know if you end up making this pie or if you have any questions, I would love to see how it yours turns out!