A homemade apple pie doesn’t last long with other people in the
house turning the oven light on to help you check when it’s done, so
enjoy a slice when the pie is still hot from the oven.
When it’s too hot to hold together, and falls apart when you dish it onto a plate.
When it’s so hot that a scoop of vanilla ice cream instantly melts and all that creamy sweetness coats the pie crust and mixes with the gooey apple filling.
Minnesota Apple Pie recipe by Season with Spice
Makes one 8” apple pie
Two crust pastry:
2 cups white flour
Dash of salt
2/3 cup lard
4-5 tablespoons cold water
Apple Filling:
4-5 Honey Crisp apples* – peeled and sliced
1/2 teaspoon Season with Spice’s Vietnamese Cinnamon Powder
1/3 cup raw sugar (up to a 1/2 cup if using a tarter apple like a Haralson)
3 tablespoons flour
Dash of salt
1-2 tablespoons of butter - cut into six pieces
Process:
1. Mix flour and salt in large bowl. Slice lard pieces into bowl and combine using your fingers until texture resembles crumbs. Then add a tablespoon of water at a time while continuing to mix the dough with your fingers. Dough is ready when it just holds together. Form dough into ball, and cut in half. Wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate while preparing apple filling.
2. For apple filling, mix together Vietnamese cinnamon, sugar, flour, and salt. Then mix in apples slices until evenly coated.
3. Preheat oven to 425F.
4. Lightly flour a counter space or board, and using a rolling pin (with rolling pin sock on), roll one half of the dough into an evenly thin circle with about a 10 inch diameter. Carefully place into an 8 inch pie pan, and then press down to form dough tightly onto pan to remove any air pockets.
5. Next, add in the apple filling. Then top with pieces of butter.
6. Roll the second half of the dough ball into the same shape as the first. Place over the pie pan. Then, using a fork, press the dough along the rim of the pan so the top and bottom pieces seal together. Trim off edges of dough. Cut slits into top of pie crust to allow steam to escape. Finally, cover pie crust edges with aluminum foil to prevent over-browning of edges, but remove foil in last 15 minutes of baking to ensure it bakes evenly with entire pie crust.
7. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until the filling starts to bubble up through the slits in the middle of the pie.
Notes:
*To make the perfect amount of apple filling, use the 8” pie pan to measure. As you slice the apples, add them to the pie pan until you fill the pan just to the rim.
- Lard makes a perfectly light, flaky crust, but try to avoid the boxed lard you find on the grocery store shelf. It’s hydrogenated, and filled with preservatives like BHA. You should be able to find natural lard available at your local co-op or online (try the natural leaf lard from Prairie Pride Pork in Minnesota).
Makes one 8” apple pie
Two crust pastry:
2 cups white flour
Dash of salt
2/3 cup lard
4-5 tablespoons cold water
Apple Filling:
4-5 Honey Crisp apples* – peeled and sliced
1/2 teaspoon Season with Spice’s Vietnamese Cinnamon Powder
1/3 cup raw sugar (up to a 1/2 cup if using a tarter apple like a Haralson)
3 tablespoons flour
Dash of salt
1-2 tablespoons of butter - cut into six pieces
Process:
1. Mix flour and salt in large bowl. Slice lard pieces into bowl and combine using your fingers until texture resembles crumbs. Then add a tablespoon of water at a time while continuing to mix the dough with your fingers. Dough is ready when it just holds together. Form dough into ball, and cut in half. Wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate while preparing apple filling.
2. For apple filling, mix together Vietnamese cinnamon, sugar, flour, and salt. Then mix in apples slices until evenly coated.
3. Preheat oven to 425F.
4. Lightly flour a counter space or board, and using a rolling pin (with rolling pin sock on), roll one half of the dough into an evenly thin circle with about a 10 inch diameter. Carefully place into an 8 inch pie pan, and then press down to form dough tightly onto pan to remove any air pockets.
5. Next, add in the apple filling. Then top with pieces of butter.
6. Roll the second half of the dough ball into the same shape as the first. Place over the pie pan. Then, using a fork, press the dough along the rim of the pan so the top and bottom pieces seal together. Trim off edges of dough. Cut slits into top of pie crust to allow steam to escape. Finally, cover pie crust edges with aluminum foil to prevent over-browning of edges, but remove foil in last 15 minutes of baking to ensure it bakes evenly with entire pie crust.
7. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until the filling starts to bubble up through the slits in the middle of the pie.
Notes:
*To make the perfect amount of apple filling, use the 8” pie pan to measure. As you slice the apples, add them to the pie pan until you fill the pan just to the rim.
- Lard makes a perfectly light, flaky crust, but try to avoid the boxed lard you find on the grocery store shelf. It’s hydrogenated, and filled with preservatives like BHA. You should be able to find natural lard available at your local co-op or online (try the natural leaf lard from Prairie Pride Pork in Minnesota).
