Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Dione's French Apple Pie

Mix together and pour into a pie crust (deep dish works best):
5 1/2 cups Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced
(1 Tbsp. lemon juice only if lemons aren't tart)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
3 Tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Top with mixture of:
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened

Bake at 375 for 50 minutes.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is what I take to Thanksgiving every stinking year. I love apple pie and I'm pretty good at it if I do say so myself.

I will always remember the first time I took the pie to a Thanksgiving with Scott's family and his Aunt Jacque was just oohing and ahhing over this pie... Finally she said, "OMIGOD! This is the best crust! How do you make this crust?" And I shamefully had to admit my secret.

The secret to a perfect pie crust is the freezer section of your local supermarket. Shop at least a week before Thanksgiving or all the "Pet-Ritz" brand ones will be gone. Deep dish works best.

Anonymous said...

excerpt from letter to Dad, July 29, 2004

Apple pie. That's what I've decided is a fitting tribute to celebrate you and the day you were born. I remember a long time ago at a family celebration for the July birthdays (the month when all the coolest people were born), Grandma Nelson asked you what kind of cake you wanted and you said, "Apple pie."

Apple pie. It was the perfect answer. I don't know how old I was; I'm guessing nine or ten, but I remember thinking that requesting apple pie was pure genius on your part. For a couple of reasons: 1) because Grandma Nelson baked a wicked apple pie and 2) because Grandma had asked me the very same question and I never would have even considered that apple pie was an acceptable answer to the birthday cake question. But there you were bucking the system. Doing your own thing. Always exactly who you were.

It's okay to be different. Never try so hard to please anyone that you get lost in the process. You taught me that. Maybe not always in so many words, but by example.