I am sure many of you will debate, but my Grandmother’s apple pie is truly the best on Earth. It is the prized jewel on the dessert buffet at our Thanksgiving feast. Grandma Maleski, you can just call her Grandma, allowed me to observe as she shared her secret to the perfect apple pie.
Grandma loves to wear her daisies & pearls made apron in the kitchen.
As you can see, Grandma follows a very old recipe.
In true Martha style, Grandma has her workspace prepared.
Unlike Martha, Grandma prefers the “cheap spices”.
Though her mother used Greening apples, Grandma uses Macintosh because they “cook down like applesauce”.
Most recipes call for the spices to be added after the apples have been arranged in the pie crust. Grandma adds “heaping” amounts of spices and mixes them with the apples prior to placing them in the bottom crust.
“The key ingredient is flour to thicken the filling.”
“Sifting flour is quite the workout for me. Shake, rattle and roll!”
“I prefer using a knife to blend the flour, shortening and water, over the pastry blender you got me a few years ago. “
“The recipe says to blend the crust until it is pea size. How do they expect me to see something the size of a pea?”
“I hope I am not being timed.”
Grandma felt a bit under pressure…
as her supervisor looked on.
Grandma reminisced about my brother and me always being at the table to watch her and my mother bake. They used to leave the extra pie crust for us to invent our own recipes.
“You know the crust will be good if it falls apart.”
Instead of whistling, Grandma hums while she works.
Half way there. Grandma applies a dab of water to the bottom crust edge to help the top crust stick.
The moment of truth, “Now pray this top crust is big enough.”
Success! If the pie crust happened to be too small one may hear Grandma exclaim “By jiggles!” or “Oh sugar!”
“The tough part is over.”
Grandma prefers a fork to add a decorative edge to her pie.
A knife is used to cut vents in the top of the pie crust.
Foil is placed over the edge to avoid the pie crust from browning too much.
The pie is placed in the oven to bake for an hour with the foil on.
Just enough time to enjoy a hot cup of tea and good company,
while our supervisor enjoys a nap in the sun.
As we waited for the pie to bake, Grandma told me about a home economics project she did in high school. Her teacher told the students to make sure they washed the fabric before constructing their projects. All thought it strange and didn’t take the teacher’s advice. To their dismay, when it was time to try on their project, the students realized why. The shirts they worked so hard to sew were too small.
After an hour the foil is removed and the pie is baked until “the crust is good and brown and the apples are bubbling.”
Perfection!
Is your mouth watering yet?!
From our family to yours have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
by Sarah
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