Classic Apple Pie Recipe

The autumn air always beckons me to bake an apple pie and with the ever ready supply of fresh picked apples around New England, how can I really say no? This year I got my Macintosh apples from a local farm and they were so fragrant I could hardly wait to cut them all up and stuff them inside a pie! Typically when I cook I like to try new methods and ingredients each time to spice it up, but this apple pie is one of the few things that I NEVER change – there’s no need to mess with perfection.

What You Need

5-6 Macintosh apples, cored and sliced

2 C Flour, 3 TBS Flour

1.5 C Sugar, 1.5 tsp Sugar

1/2 C Butter

1/2 C Vegetable Oil

2 TBS Cold Milk

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

1 tsp Salt

How to Make It

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Mix 1.5 C flour, oil, milk 1.5 tsp sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl until blended well. It will form a somewhat wet doughy ball that is very malleable and you'll want to pat this down into a pie pan and up the sides to form the bottom crust. You can also crimp the crust along the sides of the pan with a fork.

3. Next, mix the cinnamon, nutmeg, 3 TBS flour and 3/4 C sugar in a small bowl. Sprinkle this mixture over the apple slices in a large mixing bowl until evenly coated. Pour the apple slices into the pie pan and spread them out with a cooking spoon so that they are settled evenly.

4. Mix together 1/2 C flour, 1/2 C sugar and butter until the mixture is fully incorporated. You can use a pastry cutter, but I tend to use a potato masher and, more often, my hands to work everything through. It also helps to leave the butter out while you're doing the earlier steps so it has time to warm up  a bit. The mixture will be similar to a thick batter in texture and you want to spread it over the top of the pie until the apples are mostly covered. It's not a traditional crust, but it's a yummy sweet and savory topping that complements the taste of the pie nicely.

5. Bake the pie for for 45 minutes to an hour, until the top is golden brown. It helps to put the pie pan on a cookie sheet in the oven in case anything bubbles over the edge. When it's done, slice 'er up, top with vanilla ice cream and dig in!