As american as apple pie

Expressions abound about apple pie, so I will save the space and go ahead and let you insert your favorite.  Being a New England native, apple pie is a key player in my falls (as in autumn, not apple pie causing me to take a tumble... unless it was rum apple pie or something... hmmm).  And lucky for me, my mom happens to be the best apple pie maker around.  Delicious to the point where my dad and I legit fight over the pie.  In order to keep any level of sanity, each person is given an apple pie allotment, bestowed upon them by the great apple pie magistrate (read: my dad), and said magistrate always keeps very careful watch as we claim our slices.  One apple pie cut into six generous pieces means we each get two glorious slices that will rocket you directly into pie nirvana.  Sometimes my mom cuts one of her pieces into two, which means she gets to sit down to apple pie three times... What a sneaky mom!  We are always jealous of whoever has the last piece.  That person will always gloat that they still get to eat apple pie that day, and the others look on longingly at that lone, untouchable, suran wrapped piece of pie on the kitchen counter. What willpower to not eat both of your slices on the first day!  

I didn't learn this recipe until a little later in life, because I figured I could never make it as good as my mom and I was always perfectly happy just having her bake pies for me and my inner fat person (this is the same reason I never learned how to make my Nana's legendary ravioli, which is something I regret regularly).  Anyways, she taught, I learned... And turns out I am pretty ok at it!  This is a quality about me that my current roommates (and previous coworkers) greatly appreciate.

My Mom's Apple Pie

Materials:

• 6-8 large tarty apples (cortland or granny smith work nicely)
• lemon juice
• 2 cups flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon dried lemon peel (hint: this is the first secret to this amazing pie)
• 3/4 cup butter, cut up into little pieces + 1/4 cup butter in slices
• ⅔ cup sugar + ¼ cup
• ¼ cup flour
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

Methods:

1. Preheat the convection oven to 400 degrees.
• If using a regular oven, preheat to 350 degrees.
2. Peel, core, and thinly slice the apple.
3. Put a little lemon juice on the apple slices, mix around, and set aside.
4. Mix the flour, salt, dried lemon peel and butter pieces together until well mixed.
• Use your hands here!
5. Transfer ⅔ of the mixture in a 10” pie plate.
6. Pat out the bottom crust with your hands all along the bottom of the pie plate and up the sides.
7. Place sugar, flour, salt, and cinnamon into a cup and mix well.
8. Place a layer of apples on the bottom of the crust.
9. Sprinkle the sugar mixture over the layer of apples.
10. Continue alternating between layer of apple and layer of sugar.
11. After the final layer of apple, finish sprinkling with sugar, and then place thin slices of butter around the top.
12. Add sugar and a dash of cinnamon to the remaining crust.
13. Cover the pie with this crumb topping. (Hint: this is the second secret to this amazing pie!)
14. Bake in the convection oven at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.
• If using regular oven, bake for 1 hour.
• The apples should be nice and soft and you should see yumminess bubbling up around the edges.

Now, at this point you have one of two options. Option one, eat the entire pie immediately so that you don't have to share.  Option 2, measure out the slices in such a way that everyone gets a fare share.  Without some sort of pie allowance, I promise that things will get messy and feelings will be hurt (hey, a girl will say anything to sneak some extra of this amazing apple pie!). Either way, head directly to your kitchen now!  Your taste buds, friends, family, etc will thank you :-).