As American as Apple Pie

I hope you had a lovely Christmas, if you celebrate Christmas. I had a spectacular one. It was my first Christmas in another country, and it was definitely a different experience. I loved every minute of it.

My contribution to a delicious Noche Buena feast was apple pie. Alas, this was not quite the version of apple pie I make in the U.S. This was definitely the whatever-I-can-find-to-make-this-pie-will-do version. 

Here in Lima I can only find three different apples, Granny Smith, Red Delicious and Gala. My mom always made her apple pies with Granny Smith, and though I thought the pie was tasty enough, it was never my favorite. That is until I stumbled across Honeycrisp apples about 8 years ago at a farmer's market in Virginia. They were new on the market then, and I remember trying a slice at the market and falling instantly in love.

That Fall I think I made about five apple pies, and how I ended up losing 20lbs over that period is beyond me. But my belly was happy.

I've been jonesing to make an apple pie for a few months after one of my best friends here told me that apple pie is his favorite. However, I was hesitant because I knew that whatever I made would not come close to my apple pie back home. 

But as I was trying to come up with something to share with the family who invited me to celebrate Christmas with them, I threw out the apple pie idea to the delight of my friend. So then I was stuck with making it. 

It was quite an adventure, that's for sure.

First, I was making it at 9 or 10pm at night along with trying to roll the Whiskey Cocoa Balls. I hadn't eaten much that day so was not only tired but hungry. We're lucky we even had any apple slices left to put in the pie after I munched on several. 

My friend's daughter peeled all the apples for me, which was quite lovely, because that meant I was free to make the dough. This was my first time making dough from scratch. I know, to you bakers reading this, you must think that's ridiculous. Alas, my mom always showed me the easy way to bake--you buy the dough premade so all you have to do is unwrap it and lay it in the pan. Or you can even buy a frozen pie pan crust and just throw in the apple mixture or whatever to make the pie.

But since I live in Peru now, everything I do must be from scratch. I relish this challenge. I feel like I'm finally a real baker now, a real cook, because everything must be super fresh ingredients and made by hand. I love this challenge.

Of course, given that I wasn't exactly on my best game that night, I realized too late that I only made enough dough for one and a half pie crusts. But I needed two, one for the bottom and one for the top of the pie.

So I decided to step up the challenge and after preparing the bottom crust as best as I could, I rolled out the remaining dough and sliced it so I could make a lattice.

The funniest part of the whole thing was the actual baking experience. My friend only has a small confection oven, so the top of the pie burnt pretty quickly. We pulled it out and tried to think of what to do next because we were running out of time. So we brought the pie and my ingredients for the Whiskey Cocoa Balls downstairs to her mother's kitchen so use her stove. But that stove wasn't working, so my friend popped the pie in the microwave. I had given up caring about the final result by the time because all I could smell was the divine turkey. 

I don't know how long Sheyla microwaved the pie for, but the dough looked baked enough, so we pulled it out and placed it in the window to cool. And after dinner I brought it out to share with everyone.

Sheyla's seven year old son was the first to cut a piece, and as I watched it crumble under the knife, I made an apology for how it looked. Ale looked up at me and said, "No me importa cómo se paracer, pero cómo rico sabor." Translation for you folks back home: It doesn't matter how it look but how delicious it tastes. Oh, how I adore that kid.

I can't tell you that it was a good pie, but I'm proud of my first try at making it from scratch. What follows is a recipe that works in the U.S. using my favorite Honeycrisp apples. I think they're still available in grocery stores, at least back in California they should be. So definitely make yourself a pie using those apples before their season ends.

Enjoy!

Honeycrisp Apple Pie

based on this recipe

Ingredients

Pastry for 2 crusts (recipe below)
8 cups sliced, peeled assorted baking apples - about 3 lbs.  (Honeycrisp is preferred but you can also use Granny Smith, Cortland, and Jonathan)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 cup white sugar (I prefer the raw, unprocessed sugar)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I like to use Pumpkin Pie spice)
2 tablespoons butter
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon milk

Directions

1. In a large bowl, toss the sliced apples with lemon juice.

2. Combine sugars, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg; add to apples and toss well to coat.

3. Fill pastry lined 9 inch pie pan with apple mixture. Dot with butter.

4. Place second crust on top of pie filling, cut slits in top of crust to vent. (To make the lattice,  thread the 8 slices, 4 vertically and 4 horizontally, over and under each other.) Seal the edges of the crust with a fork or by hand.

5. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolk and milk. Brush mixture over top crust.

6. Bake at 425°F for 15 minutes.

7. Reduce heat to 350°F and bake 40-45 minutes more or until crust is golden and filling is bubbly.

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Flaky Pastry Pie Crust Recipe

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, chilled and diced
1/2 cup ice water

Directions

1. Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl.

2. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

3. Stir in the ice water, a Tablespoon at a time, until the crust mixture forms a ball.

4. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

5. Sprinkle flour onto rolling surface. Roll dough out, then divide in half. Roll each half to fit a 9-inch pie plate.

6. Place crust in pie plate, pressing evenly into the bottom and sides.

7. To make the top crust into lattice, slice the rolled dough into 8 thin strips.

Makes two 9-inch pie crusts