apple pie

it's now december and finally, with a little chill in the air, the oven has been calling to me. although i tend to bake all year long, the winter months in albuquerque may be the only season when baking actually feels appropriate. so, dinah and i spent our afternoon on tuesday baking a pie. 

dinah suggested we make a dinosaur pie (why wouldn't we make a dinosaur pie!) and i had a bunch of granny smith (or "sour apples" in dinah's words) on hand, so a dinosaur apple pie it was!

anne's apple pie

ingredients:

6 cups baking apples, cored, peeled, and sliced

2 TBS water

1 TBS lemon juice

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

3 TBS flour

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp ginger

1/8 tsp salt

1 pastry for double-crust 9 inch pie

directions:

in a saucepan, combine apples, water, and lemon juice. cook over medium-low heat until apples are tender. remove from heat and cool. while cooling making the pastry (recipe to follow).

in a large bowl, combine sugars, flour, and spices. add apples and toss to coat. place on the bottom pastry in pie plate, pour apple mixture over bottom pastry. cover with top pastry, seal and flute edges. cut slits in top crust (or like us, cut out dinosaur shapes).

bake at 450°F for 10 minutes. reduce heat to 350°F and bake 35-45 minutes or until golden brown.

basic pastry

ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup shortening

4-6 TBS cold water

directions:

mix together flour and salt, then cut in shortening. while mixing, add a tablespoon of cold water one at a time, until flour mixture is moistened. form dough into a ball.

on a slightly floured surface, flatten and roll out dough to about 12 inches in diameter. transfer pastry to a 9 inch pie plate.

double recipe for a double-crust pie.