I'm open to suggestions. Share!

-- Anonymous, September 27, 1999

Answers

only if you tell me how to make a decent pastry..
My dear hubby got me one of those cast iron peelers that you clamp onto the table & crank. Way cool. Gotta make something with all these apples the kids keep luggin in...

-- Anonymous, September 27, 1999

Yes! It's my mom's recipe, and she just sent it to me yesterday for my upcoming dinner party. As for the crust thing, she uses the Pillsbury frozen crusts, and they're indistinguishable from homemade:

Sour Cream Apple Pie One 8 inch pie shell, unbaked Sift: 2 T. flour 3/4 cup flour Add: 1 unbeaten egg 1 cup sour cream 1 tsp. vanilla 1/4 tsp. nutmeg Beat until smooth - batter will be thin. Stir in 2 cups pared, diced apples. Pour into pie shell, bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake 35 minutes longer. Combine: 1/3 cup sugar' 1/3 cup flour 1 tsp. cinnamon 1/4 cup soft butter Sprinkle over pie and bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes more.

HINTS: I usually make 1.5 times this for a regular size pie and double for a deep dish, larger pie. (same for topping). I use Granny Smith or McIntosh apples or something tart, and I put as many in as will fit. I usually put foil loosely over the pie top when first baking, because the crust tends to burn at the temp. they suggest. In fact, I sometimes leave the foil on until close to the end of baking time. I also don't leave it in for 10 minutes after I put on the topping - usually more like 5. You have to adjust in order not to burn the crust.

-- Anonymous, September 27, 1999

My picky-eater brother really likes the pie that my aunt makes for Thanksgiving.

APPLE PIE WITH SOUR CREAM AND CRUMBLY TOP

2 Tbsp. + 1/3 cup flour 3/4 cup + 1/3 cup sugar 1 1/4 tsp. cinnamon 1/8 tsp. salt 1 egg 1/2 tsp. vanilla 1 cup sour cream 1/4 cup butter or margarine 4-6 medium apples--pared, cored, sliced (3-4 cups) 1 unbaked 9" pie shell, chilled

Sift together 2 T. flour, 3/4 cup sugar, 3/4 tsp. cinnamon, & 1/8 tsp. salt. Stir in egg, vanilla, and sour cream. fold in apples and spoon into pie shell. Bake 15 min. at 400 degrees. Reduce heat to 350 and bake 30 min. longer. Combine remaining 1/3 cup flour, 1/3 cup sugar, and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon with pastry blender. Blend in butter til crumbly and sprinkle over pie. Bake at 400 for 10 min. longer.

-- Anonymous, September 27, 1999

Yeah, the Pillsbury crusts are great. My mom -- who makes great pies with perfect flaky crusts -- uses them sometimes. (Oops, sorry, Mom, didn't mean to divulge your secrets.) She told me that you can't reliably make good crusts unless you make pies a lot, because so much of it is just knowing when it's right. So if you don't get a lot of practice, you're better off sticking with the Pillsbury crust than making a substandard one on your own.

One hint, though -- don't go looking in the frozen dough section looking for them. If you do, you'll make the mistake I made -- you'll think your store doesn't carry Pillsbury, and you'll buy some other crappy brand of frozen pie crust. Those suck and they make rotten pies. The Pillsbury ones are refrigerated, not frozen, and they're with the rest of the Pillsbury dough thingies. They are vastly superior to any other brand, trust me on this. And follow the directions for letting them warm up to room temperature, or you'll get a funky little fold line in the middle of your pie that will tell everyone you cheated.

I used Pillsbury dough this time because I was too busy to make crusts for that many pies, and plus I'm not very good at pie crust. Once we have an oven, though, this is a skill I intend to master. I love pie. It's my favorite dessert.

-- Anonymous, September 27, 1999

I'm so lazy, I usually just do an apple crisp. And that doesn't involve a recipe-just crumbling together a little butter and flower and then adding in nice things like brown sugar and cinnamon.

-- Anonymous, September 27, 1999

I think condiment sauce is a fancy word for ketchup. Speaking of old recipe books, my husband insisted we get the Gourmet cookbooks. These books are from 1950 and have everything from Roast Beef to Creamed Woodchuck. Ughh. The pictures are hysterical, there is this one shot of a boiled tongue sitting on a platter with flowers all over it. Yuck.

Here is the Apple Pie recipe from Gourmet ala 1950:

Slice 6 tart apples. Line a deep pie pan with flaky pastry and spread a layer of apple slices over the bottom. Sprinkle with part of a mixture of 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1/3 teaspoon salt, dot with 2 tablespoons butter and repeat until all the apples are used. Cover with pastry, pierce with the tines of a fork, and brush with cold milk. If a glaze is desired, brush with 1 beaten egg yolk diluted with an equal amount of cold milk. Bake in a hot oven for 10 minutes. Lower the temperature to moderate and bake for 35 to 40 minutes longer, or until the apples are tender and the crust golden-brown.

-- Anonymous, September 27, 1999

Now crumble I can do. We use butter & oatmeal, blended with a sprinkle of flour & some brown sugar & cinnamon. Great on any fruit.
The crusts i will be forced to practice. my hubby really likes them that way. he's such a farm boy. you don't want to hear him when I bring in convenience food! and yes, i get him to work in the kitchen as well.
Beth I can sympathise, as soon as *my* oven gets fixed too, I'll try baking some pies.

-- Anonymous, September 27, 1999

Andrea, you may need to get him OUT of the kitchen! My dad is a serious farmboy, too, but he can't tell the diff. between Pillsbury and homemade. You just have to be sneaky!

-- Anonymous, September 27, 1999

Uh. Hmmm. Well Mom and I both "wing it." You know? Been cooking so long that a recipe isn't needed, though her pie crusts are still ten times better than mine.

She uses shortening for flakier crusts, I use part shortening part butter because I like the buttery flavor, but they're less flaky as a result.

I don't sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top, I use a sweetened egg mixture brushed over the top of the crust which gives a slight sweetness to the dough and browns the crust nicely. One egg whipped with a couple of small spoonsfuls of sugar.

Mix the apples with a huge amount of cinnamon, basically sprinkle the top liberally until the apples are coated, about a quarter cup of flour and either very little(like a couple of table spoons) or NO sugar, two tablespoons of citrus juice to help bring out the natural juices of the apples and two or so teaspoons of nutmeg.

I tend to just shake the bottles over the apples until I'm happy with the way it looks.

Crust is generally a variation on your basic pie crust, adding more or less fat depending on the temperature outside. I've found that the amount of humidity in the air can have a huge impact on how your crust turns out.

And my mom maintains that chilling your crust for at least an hour is paramount.

Her crusts DO in fact kick ass, but I rarely have the time to wait that long for my pie crust 'cos I'm usually making the pie while I make dinner and sliding it into the oven to bake while we eat.

Now, for something a little bit different, try this recipe for "Bubbly Pies" which comes from Anne McCaffrey's Pern books. Traditionally, these are made with blueberries, but I've made 'em with lots of different fruits and they're always good no matter what's in 'em:)

---- Crust: 2 1/2 Cups flour 1/2 cup butter/margarine 1/2 tsp salt 1 Cup ice water 2 TBS sugar

Cut butter into chunks. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Work butter gently with a fork until pieces the size of peas form. Sprinkle water over bit by bit and work it in. (Do not overwork the dough.) Form dough into a ball.

Filling: 5 cups of blueberries (or substitute other fruit) 1 Cup granulated sweetening 1/4 teaspoon powdered klah bark (cinnamon) 2 TBS citrus juice

Gently toss berries with sweetening and klah bark in a large bowl. Sprinkle citrus juice over mixture. Spoon berries into crust and dot with butter:

for six tarts, divide the ball into two pieces. Work with one at a time. Form each into a ball and press out into a circle, divide each circle into six. Roll each piece into a ball. Flatten to 1/8 inch, cut into 5 inch wide circles and fit into six tart pans. Fill with fruit mixture. Moisten the edge of each tart and top ith second circle of dough. Seal and flute the edges. Cut slits in top of each tart with a knife. Cover edge of each tart with foil.

Bake at 375 for ten minutes. Remove foil. Bake for 8-12 minutes more or until crust is golden. Serve hot.

For 12 Gather Pies:

1 crust recipe 1 beaten egg 1/2 filling recipe

Roll out dough on a floud surface to 1/8 inch thickness. Using a 3-inch cookie cutter, cut out 24 circles. Lay out 12 on a lightly greased cookie sheet (if using blueberries, I strongly suggest LINING YOUR PAN WITH FOIL. The juice runs hard out of these pies and I turned more than one cookie sheet into a morass of blueberry candy before I thought to line the pans.) Divide filling among circles, spooning approx. 2-3 tablespoons into center of each, leaving a 1/4 inch border.

Brush border with egg. Lay the second circle on top of each pie and press edges together with a form all the way around. (Stretch crust gently to fit if necessary.) If desired, mix together 1/4 cup of water with 1 1/2 tsp of sweetening; brush top of each pie with mixture for a sugary glaze. With a knife, cut three or four short slits in the top of each pie.

Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes, until crust is golden. Slide gently off cookie sheet with spatula. Serve hot. --- These are a lot of fun to make with a large group of people. Get everyone involved in mixing the berries, rolling out dough and cutting circles to help make the baking go faster.

I've done this with friends and family, and we always have a blast. The kitchen is a MESS afterwards, and everyone gets covered with sugar and berry juice, but the laughs and the happy memories are worth it in the long run IMHO:)

-- Anonymous, September 27, 1999

The pie that has won me marriage proposals:

The filling: the key to my really good apple pie is a generous teaspoon of fresh ginger chopped up nice and small, added to three pounds of peeled and chopped apples, some cornstarch, cinnamon, and a little sugar.

And my family pie shell, which is really good, easy, and bad for you: one cup flour, one stick butter, three ounces of cream cheese (times two, since you need a top and a bottom for an apple pie). Treat it like regular pastry (don't touch it too much), and use lots of flour when you roll it out. This is also really good dough for individual short cakes (just use a floured glass to cut up the rolled-out dough into little cicles), which you just bake on a sheet like cookies. Then just add some fresh berries and cream (which, admittedly, you could add to almost anything and make it taste good, but this is really, really good).

Has anyone seen that meat cake thing? Where you make two round meatloafs in cake tins, spread mashed potatoes on and between them like frosting, and write the birthday (or whatever) greetings on top with catsup?

My friend makes a kitty litter cake, which is totally freaky: bake a brownie or cake mix in a big, tin pan (normally used for cooking big turkeys), add a layer of finely chopped lady fingers (bonus! dye some of them light blue), and then drop some slighty microwaved baby-ruths around strategically. Place on floor of party. And then, when you're cornered by an annoying kitchen lurker, reach down and grab a bite. Then sit back and watch the madness ensue!

I'm stopping now.

-- Anonymous, September 27, 1999

I have some good recipes, but I'll have to dig them up. Unfortunately, most of them rely on having the 'right' kind of apples, which usually means at least some tart ones. I have heard that you want your crust to have a lot of fat in it to prevent the funky air pocket when the apples cook down. I don't remember what a lot is, though.

Go to Apple Hill, get some granny smiths to add in with the ones you have. And while you're up there, go to Bodhaine's and buy a slice of pie. We went on Friday, and I had French Apple and my mom had Blackberry Apple Sour Cream. Yum. And their crust was truly excellent as well. (Really, really, really good.)

-- Anonymous, September 27, 1999

I have a recipie from an old cookbook...I think it is the AMy Vanderbilt cookbook....that uses 1/4 cup of strong tea in the filling mixture. I'll try to remember to look it up. It's very tasty.

In the early days of my marriage we had another couple over for dinner and I made this apple pie for dessert. Well, I served the pie and was busy getting coffee, etc. so when I sat down to eat my piece of pie the others were almost finished with theirs. As I was taking my second or third bite, I noticed little specks...with legs!! ... in my pie! (That is when I noticed the others were almost finished). Thus, I didn't say anything, but valiantly ate my piece of pie. little specks and all! After they left, I checked my spices, and sure enough, one of them had an infestation of little critters! I dumped the rest of the pie, of course and did tell my husband, but I have never told our friends. :)

-- Anonymous, September 27, 1999

I'm afraid I can't help you with the pie, but I've got a great peanut butter cookie recipe. 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 egg - that's it! Bake at 325 degrees for 8-10 minutes and let them cool on the rack (otherwise they fall apart). They are very rich, but people love them. Whipping these up is a great way to satisfy "sweet" cravings when the pantry is bare.

-- Anonymous, September 28, 1999

I make great apple pie, but I just use the recipe from the Fanny Farmer cookbook. I make good crust, too - I think home made is way better than that Pillsbury stuff. The secret of good crust is to not use too much flour, which is hard when you're rolling it out. I have a pastry cloth and a cloth cover for my rolling pin which helps to roll it out without it sticking, so you don't have to keep sprinkling flour onto it.

I think good apple pie does depend on good apples, though. I always get whichever ones smell the best at the market. I don't use Rome Beauties or other cooking apples because they don't have much flavor.

I've never heard of sprinking cinnamon and sugar on top of a pie but it sounds good.

I could be talking through my hat here - I haven't actually made pie in a long time. Pat keeps hinting...

I've made the Ritz cracker mock apple pie a couple of times. Frighteningly, it is quite good. Once I took it to work and told people it was real apple pie and they happily believed me. When I fessed up, they wouldn't believe it. Weird, huh? Another time I actually made two pies, one real and one mock. Side by side, you could tell the mock right away.

-- Anonymous, September 28, 1999

I can't speak to the filling of apple pies any further than previous respondents, apples is apples, ya know?

But the tricks to my family's crust, which is short, flaky and wonderful are: ice water, as in with ice in it to keep it cold; you cannot make pie on a humid day, just forget it and make a betty instead; don't use a pastry cutter or whatever it is that you call those silly looking wire things -- use your fingers, that's what you have 'em for. Besides, it is only when you use your fingers that you can feel when you've truly emulsified the flour and shortening, which is what you're going for -- no lumps of flour or balls of fat in your dough, please.

My grandmother taught me how to "work" pie crust when I was five years old. She grabbed my little hands and stuck 'em in the bowl and showed me the action, and I still remember that pie crust being the best I've ever made, though I am getting better with practice.

-- Anonymous, October 01, 1999