Since I almost never cook, I rarely ever do posts on cooking, baking, or recipes. But, since it’s the holidays and my Mom’s apple pie is legendary among family and friends, I made an exception. Sometime after dessert on Christmas Eve, I asked her if she wanted to share her apple pie recipe with me and all my fabulous readers and she said YES!

Here’s my Mom’s famous apple pie recipe written out in her own words for you and your family to enjoy:

The best apples for apple pie are Courtland or MacIntosh.  The secret to the pie, and for that matter any pie, is to let your fruit marinate in the sugar and other spices.  In the case of apple pie, it is very important that while peeling and cutting the apples, take a taste of a few different apples to determine the sweetness and juiciness of the apples.  If not sweet enough or bland in flavor, you might want to add some lemon juice.  If too dry, you might want to add a couple of tablespoons of water.

Begin by peeling and cutting the apples in slices into a big bowl.  Then add:

1 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

vanilla to taste

2 tablespoons small tapioca beads

Mix well and set aside.

To make the pie crust – I use a variation of the recipe in the original Joy of Cooking:

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup Crisco

Mix well with a pie blender until the dough resembles small peas.  Add 5 tablespoons of water and mix the dough with your hands until it forms a ball.  Split the ball in half, one half for the bottom the other for the top.  Please note not to handle the dough too much.  The dough is also very sensitive to its environment – it will roll out differently depending on how hot or humid it is.  So never panic when you feel that your dough is different every time.

Roll the bottom first – generously flour your surface – roll to form a circle about the size of your pie dish.  Place rolled out dough in your pie dish, put half the mixture of the apples in it.  Dot with little bits of butter.  Add remaining apples, dot with butter again.  Roll out your other half of the dough.  Before placing it on the apples, wet the rim of the bottom dough all around with wet hands.  Place the top dough and press it on the wet rim of the bottom.  With wet hands, shape the edges of the pie.

Before placing in the oven, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon then poke holes on the upper crust so that your pie will ventilate and not explode in the oven.

Bake at 450 degrees F for 15 minutes, then turn the oven down to 350 degrees F for about 35 to 45 minutes longer.

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