Pie is NEVER free!

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. - Carl Sagan

#52  Apple Pie


According to Paul Hollywood, this pie is a very French recipe.  The filling called for 3 lbs. of apples, peeled, cored and sliced, splash of Calvados, the juice of 3 lemons, a handful of golden raisins and a pinch of cinnamon.  I omitted the Calvados because I can't bring myself to purchase booze for just a splash in a recipe, especially right now.

I used Granny Smith and Pink Lady apples since the GS are typical pie fare and the PLs looked and smelled terrific.

Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness. - Jane Austen

I had some trouble with the pastry portion.  It didn't really become a dough.  It was kind of a crumble.  My best guess was that there just wasn't enough binder.  I tried a splash of water and that was not good.  That may have caused crust problems during the baking process.  Then, I added Country Crock.  (I was not about to wait for the real butter to soften.)  That seemed to work pretty well with the top crust.

You can't have Thanksgiving without turkey. That's like Fourth of July without apple pie, or Friday with no two pizzas. - Joey Tribbiani

This pie was pretty tasty.  The lemon flavor was pretty strong, but I guess that's what happens when you soak apples in lemon juice for 2 hours.  The bottom crust didn't really cook.  That may be because I put a pan under the pie tin to catch and drippings (which did not occur).  Or maybe because of the water I mentioned earlier.

I saw this sketch a while back and I have been waiting for the perfect time to use it.  Sorry for the out of sync audio.

pie's never free from hammertimez on Vimeo.

I found the video here.