Anyway you slice it

In college, one of my roommates' aunt had an apple orchard in Pulaski, about half an hour away from Virginia Tech. We would go apple picking almost every other weekend. These were the most organic apples I had ever seen. Some even had worms in them. Quite a treat. And of course, there would always be apple pies at our house. This was when I mastered the pie making skill. I probably made 20 something pies every fall.

It's not too far from the truth to say that Seth fell in love with me for my pies. Not a big fan of eating apple pies myself, but I love making them and giving them away to friends. These were our thank you gifts to anyone who ever helped us with anything around a house of four college girls who couldn't seem to get any appliance to work properly.

This pie crust recipe is almost foolproof. And once you taste it, store bought pie crust will never do. Butter and shortening ensure that your dough will be both flaky and tender. You can use this recipe for any kind of pie you are making, pumpkin, apple, pecan..., and even quiches.

Through trials and errors, I've learned a few tricks over the years:
1)Always use cold ingredients, butter, shortening, even put your flour in the freezer for a few minutes. This helps keep the dough flaky.
2)Always chill your dough for at least an hour before rolling. This makes the dough easier to handle.
3)After assembling your pie, pop it in the freezer for a few minutes for the butter to harden again before baking. What make pie crusts flaky are the pieces of butter in the dough that melt during baking (not rolling), leaving flaky pockets in your dough.

Pie Dough (enough for 2 pie crust or 1 double crust)
Blend together:
3 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
Then using a pastry cutter or the paddle attachment to your stand mixer to cut in:
1.5 sticks cold butter, cubed
1/2 cup cold shortening, cubed
Cut until the consistency of split pea. Then stir in:
4-6 Tbsp. cold water
2 tsp. distilled vinegar

The vinegar helps break down the protein that might develop in the dough to keep it tender.
Divide your dough in half, wrap them in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour.

Peel and cut into wedges about 7-8 apples of any variety that you like. I personally like pink lady because they are crisp and slightly tart, great for baking. Toss your apple wedges with:
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp. cinnamon
3 tsp. nutmeg

Roll out half your dough, transfer it to a 9" pie pan. Be careful not to stretch your pie dough. If your dough is stretched, it will shrink during blind baking.

You can choose whether or not you blind bake your crust. I wouldn't worry about it if it's apple pie made from fresh apples without too much juice. But if you are making a pecan or pumpkin pie, you should blind bake your crust before pouring your filling in the crust. This will help the crust from getting soggy.

To blind bake your crust, preheat oven to 400 F. After fitting dough to the pan, line it with foil and chill in the freezer for a few minutes. Fill with beans or rice and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the beans and foil, and bake for another 10 minutes. Cool completely before filling.

Arrange your apple wedges inside the pan. Roll out the other half and cut into strips to make a lattice design. Flute the edge of your pie. This is an apple pie so I didn't blind bake it. And you can't really blind bake if you want to do a double-crust pie. Weaving lattice strips is too much work for you? Just roll out the dough and place it on top to make a full top, cut slits for the steam to escape. You'll still get a beautiful pie. I really enjoy making lattice though!


Pop the pie in the freezer for a few minutes. Then bake for an hour to an hour and 15 minutes in a 400 F preheated oven. During baking, if the edge your pie is getting too brown too quickly, use a pie shield to keep it from burning. Otherwise, your pie will turn out like the one in the picture below. I was busy with a few other things and forgot to check the pie while baking.