Tits and Balls

Fall is a season of mixed emotions.  It signifies below freezing temperatures arriving all too soon, but it is also a season of communal gatherings, beautiful colors, and joyous festivities.  One of my personal favorite fall activities is apple picking followed by pie baking.  We recently baked two delicious apple pies, where many friends gathered to be photographed with the creation.  Here is the recipe so you can recreate it for yourself.  Also, it is key to creatively decorate the crust, so you do not just make any old ordinary pie. We chose to do a marijuana leaf, but your motif can cater to the theme of the gathering.

Applie pie recipe:

For the filling:

• 8 or 9 large apples of several different cooking varieties (Delicious apples will NOT do), peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
• Juice of 1 large lemon
• Sugar
• Ground cinnamon
• Unsalted butter

For the Crust:

• 3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 8 pieces
• 1/3 cup shortening, chilled and cut into small pieces
• 6 to 8 tablespoons iced water

Preparation

To make the pie:
Preheat oven to 450° F.

Prepare the pastry. Line a 9-inch pie pan with half of the pastry and set aside in the refrigerator, along with the unrolled half, while you make the filling. Taste a few slices of the apples to gauge how much sugar you’ll need to make them sweet. In a large bowl, mix the apple slices in the lemon juice. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon to taste, then add the mace and nutmeg. Pour the apple mixture into the prepared pastry shell. Mound toward the center and dot with butter. Roll out the remaining pastry and carefully lay it over the apples. Seal the edges, cut vent holes, and decorate with extra pieces of dough cut into decorative shapes.  Place the pie pan on a baking sheet (to catch any spill over) and cook in the middle of the oven for 10 minutes. Turn the oven down to 350° F. and continue to cook for about another hour, until the top crust is a beautiful golden brown. If the edges start to darken too much, cover with a ribbon of aluminum foil.

To make the crust:
Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Incorporate the butter and shortening with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.  Add the iced water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough begins to form into a ball. Turn the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap. As you wrap the dough in the plastic, form it into a disk. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Take the dough from the refrigerator and cut it into 2 pieces, one slightly bigger than the other. Wrap the smaller piece in plastic wrap and return to the refrigerator. Roll out the bigger piece on a lightly floured surface until it’s slightly larger than the pie pan. Drape one end of the dough over the pin and gently lift it up, then slip the pan underneath the dough and lower it into the pan. Press the dough gently — and quickly — against the sides of the pan. Leave about an inch of dough hanging over the sides of the pan and cut any excess away. Refrigerate the crust for at least 30 minutes before filling.

After you have filled the pie, take the smaller disk from the refrigerator and roll it out on a lightly floured surface until it’s a little bigger than the pie. Drape one end of the dough over the rolling pin, lift it gently, then drape it over the top of the filling. Press the edges together and crimp to seal.  Makes a double 9-inch crust.