The Best Apple Pie Ever. Part 2.

Taking on the task of recreating a decades-old pie recipe is a daunting one, especially when the recipe exists only in the memory of a scatterbrained librarian-slash-culinary imposter. And not even the recipe itself, but the mere memory of the finished pie and all it stood for. The light in all the flour-coated darkness is, of course, the opportunity to sample lots of baked goods.

For pie number two, I wanted to make some simple changes to the first recipe I used, but nothing drastic. I consulted several of the cookbooks in my library. One of my favorites is The Art and Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet. The recipes are straightforward, and while the apple pie recipe was not exactly right for this pursuit, it does give step by step instructions, with great photos, on how to create the perfect pie dough. So, for knuckleheads like me who end up with Brobdingnagian pea-sized crumbs of dough, such images are a godsend.

For the dough this time, I went with shortening only, no butter. The consensus seems to be that shortening gives you a flaky crust, but lacks the flavor that butter provides. I did see "butter-flavored" shortening at the store, but that scared me a bit, so I ignored it. And I wondered if lack of flavor in a crust is acceptable if the texture is great and the flavor in the filling and crumb topping make up for it. (Turns out, it's not.) I made sure I dotted the well-packed apples with bits of butter, just like Mom used to do. I omitted the lemon juice. I also decided to go with a different apple. 

I have to say, this apple business is driving me crazy. Everybody has an opinion on everything, and no one can seem to agree on what type of apple works best in a pie. It doesn't help when your favorite grocery store carries 17 different types of apples at any given autumn moment. I didn't even recognize half the names of the different varieties they carried. After spending too much time researching on the Internet before shopping, I had decided to go with Northern Spy apples. Of the 17 varieties in front of me at the store, all of zero were Northern Spy. Figures. After starting to conduct another Internet search using my phone in the middle of the produce section, then feeling like a complete techno-jerk, I decided to go with Cortlands. Well, half Cortlands, and half Granny Smith. Cortlands tend to be sweeter, and I thought a nice tart-sweet balance would be a good idea. Frankly, at that moment, I had no idea if Cortlands would hold up well in a pie, and I didn't care. In a sea of knobbed russet, d’arcy spice, belle de boskoop, black gillyflower, esopus spitzenberg (wait—wasn’t he the governor of New York?) and, my favorite, hubbardston nonesuch apples, I had to go with something I had at least heard of.

Now, I hate peeling apples. I hate peeling anything, really. But with apples there's always a thousand of them, so its even more annoying. Coring them is even worse, and despite having two carpenters in my family, I can't eyeball a 1/4 inch to save my life, so slicing stresses me out as well. To reduce my apple hostility, I have discovered a simple way to rid the apple of its core without having to deal with it directly. I simply cut right alongside the core to remove an almost complete half of the apple, then turn it around and cut the other "half" away from the core. Then I cut the two remaining chunks away. I'm left with four pieces, each with a nice flat side to make slicing safe and easy. To solve the measurement issues, I use a ruler. I know, I know. I'm a genius.

I've always wondered what recipes mean when they say a "difficult to roll out" dough. I certainly haven't mastered the perfect crust, but I'd never had much trouble getting a dough to roll out. Until now. I swear, I swear the dough clumped nicely in my hand when I tested it after adding my ice water. I was careful not to over mix - perhaps too careful, so careful that some of the dough was hydrated while the rest of it was dry and parched. When I rolled it out, it broke and flaked off in sheets, and stuck to the rolling pin and generally made me crazy. I forced it into submission and got it into the pie plate without too much drama. I did have to do a lot of patching, however, which bruised my ego a bit. I started to understand why so many people buy those pre-made crusts. Not that I ever would, mind you. Not this year, at least.

I definitely wanted to go with a crumb topping, despite the less-than-appetizing page the recipe was on in Mom's cookbook. This one called for butter, flour, and sugar. Sounded good to me!

After the 60 minutes of bake time, the top of the pie looked good, but when I stuck a knife into the filling, I was met with resistance. The apples were not nearly cooked. I put the pie back in for another 15 minutes. But when I tested it again, the apples were still a bit too firm, and a thin, watery puddle of juice had started to form on the sheet pan. This has always been my problem. Pie #1 was fine, though, not runny at all. Was it the Cortlands? I had no idea, and it was to late to thicken it with cornstarch. Back into the oven the pie went. After 10 minutes, I took the pie out. A horrible layer of blackened apple juice had taken hold of my sheet pan, and the apple filling was bubbling like mad under the crumb topping. It made itself perfectly clear: I was not to put this beast back into the oven. I let it cool, and when I sliced it up, the crust was nice and flaky, though some improperly sealed patches fell away, and the flavor was--well, there was no flavor. The filling was total mush. I had overcooked the life out of it. The crumb topping wasn't quite right, either - it lacked richness and the flavor was flat--it was really just sweet, nothing else. I suspect the plain old white sugar is to blame. 

So, I had a pie with a decent, flaky-but-dry crust, boring crumb topping, and an applesauce filling. Not a winner, by any stretch, but still totally edible, even pretty good, considering.

But we're not done. Oh no. With variables to consider such as type of fat, whether to cook the apples first, food processor or pastry cutter, pre-bake the crust or not, chill the dough first or not...not to mention the countless varieties of apples to consider, I may have to make hundreds of apple pies to find the right one. Let's hope the third time's the charm...