My Mother's Apple Pie, My Apple Pie

     If you are a home cook that makes apple pie I'd be curious to know how you acquired your recipe and pie skills. I'm guessing that if you polled people and made a pie chart of that data the largest piece would be labeled, "From My Mother." I learned how to make apple pie from my mother, Marilyn Aileen Johnson, née Howard. I can say without hesitation that it is the best apple pie I've ever had. That is not just a son talking - I have found better versions of many of her recipes - no offense Mom. Saying any food or recipe is "the best" is pure opinion, but I can describe and share exactly what makes this pie great. You are going to want to scroll down to the bottom of this article now if all you care about is pie.
     I was surprised when I first learned that my mother did not learn pie baking from her mother. Grandma Howard was famous in our family for her cinnamon rolls but I never saw her make a pie. My mom's recipe and pie skills were learned in a home economics class at the University of Illinois some time around 1946. Her instructor was a woman who had won a blue ribbon at the Illinois State Fair for her cherry pie. I have spent some time trying to track down that woman's name and if I'm ever successful I'll update this paragraph.
     My early pie making lessons were absorbed while standing on a red wood step stool on the opposite side of the kitchen counter while my mom worked. I didn't attempt to make one myself until my late twenties, and there was always something not quite right with my early efforts, usually the crust. The main problem was that I didn't make them often enough to learn from my mistakes. That, and Mom wasn't across the counter from me. In October of 1991, two months shy of my 31st birthday, I decided to fix my pie problems by making one pie after another until I got it right. I think it took three tries and two phone calls. At about the same time I met a woman named Martha O'Brien.
     Martha and I had lived in the same three-story brick apartment building on Pershing Avenue in St. Louis for over a year without crossing paths. This had everything to do with our personal clocks. I rose early, went to work, came home around 6 and was in bed early enough to actually read a while before falling asleep. Martha slept late, rode her bike to work, stayed in the lab until some God-awful hour, came home and turned off the light after midnight. This biological difference has attenuated, but not disappeared, after 24-plus years of marriage. But having some extra pie around came in super handy during those first days of our relationship, and this recipe is one of the foundation stones of our personal mythology.
     The only other people I know who make this amazing pie are my sister Janis, my sister-in-law Jan, my cousin Barbara, and my second cousin Rachel. That's too few. Give it a try.

WHY THIS PIE IS GREAT

The flavor and texture of the crust is spot on.
The apples are sliced thinly, so they cook evenly and form a dense filling. The thin slices also create interlocking layers so that when you cut into it the filling doesn't spill out.
The top crust is not sealed around the edges to the bottom crust. This allows the top crust to float on the filling as its volume changes during baking and cooling.
The ratio of crust to filling is, in the opinion of this pie eater, just right.

A WORD ABOUT INGREDIENTS

Apple pie, at least this one, is not health food. It is a home to three horsemen of the dietary apocalypse: white refined sugar, all-purpose flour, and bad fat. My mom used Crisco vegetable shortening, and I use Crisco. Crisco is no longer a trans fat, so that's at least a step in the right direction. Pretty soon I'm going to try substituting some butter for part of the Crisco. I'll let you know if that's a step in the right direction.
My mom used only Jonathan apples. I have had great success with Northern Spy, but you're going to need to pick your own or head to the Farmer's Market to find those. Granny Smith apples make a perfectly good pie and always seem to be available. Using a combination of super-tart and mellower apples isn't a bad idea. Taste for tartness while peeling.

PIE CRUST 101

If you are new to making pastry dough, you are going to need more information than I provide in this recipe. The basic outline is here, but I'd recommend tracking down some additional reading (Cook's Illustrated and Mark Bittman come to mind), and watching a Youtube video or two. There is no substitute for experience, particularly when deciding how much water to add to bring the dough together. I've found it's easier to deal with dough that has a few moist areas than a batch that is too dry. A pastry cloth is kind of essential.

GLUTEN FREE? THANK YOU BOB'S RED MILL

Martha was diagnosed with celiac disease a few years ago. After some failed attempts with gluten-free recipes, I found Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Pie Crust mix. It's quite a bit harder to work with than regular crust, but for flavor and texture it's amazingly close. Follow the instructions exactly. Err on the side of more rather than less when adding the ice water. If you use this to make your very first crust, you will probably give up altogether. Substitute a GF flour mix, or better yet some tapioca flour, for the regular flour in the sugar mixture and that bit that gets spread around on the bottom of the crust.