Don't wait for Thanksgiving to start baking.
When I bought my house five years ago, I inherited an espalier apple tree. It had been carefully trained to grow nearly flat against a stuccoed wall in my back yard-but only up to a point. At about six feet from the ground the tree went feral, so that it looked like a boxwood Edward Scissorhands had only halfway finished. My new next-door neighbor told me that the house had been remodeled, and the yard landscaped, by owners who lived in the house until the mid-1990s. One
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was an architect and the other an avid gardener. The house was sold to the people I bought it from when the couple died, one shortly after the other. The tree bears silent witness to their years of constant presence and sudden loss.
I never met these people, but I feel a connection to them through the tree they worked so hard to prune every summer, pulling its slender new branches into form with ribbons attached to masonry nails. All year I've watched the tree, taking delight in its profusion of blossoms in the spring, watching some of them turn into fruits, giving it special preference in watering, and pruning the wild new shoots into shape according to directions I found in a book.
Last night I decided the biggest two of the apples were finally ripe and when I reached for them, they fell into my hands. I have no idea what kind of apples they are, but the green, sweet/tart flavor reminds me of the apples that grew on the tree outside my
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grandmother's house when I was a kid. Unlike the mottled red apples that grew in her small orchard, which were for eating out of hand, she called those green apples next to the house "cooking apples."
My grandmother was a great cook, the best of the best. She truly loved every part of the process, from selecting the best raspberries from the farm's many brambles for her jam, to pulling fat bass from the pond to be wrapped in bacon and broiled. I don't remember her making pie very often, and she didn't teach me her method, but I think she'd understand why my inherited tree inspired me to make this pie.
All-Purpose Pie Pastry
After many years of making only-shortening crusts, followed by a complete shift to butter-only crusts, I've finally settled on
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a butter/lard (or shortening) combo that gives a flavorful and flaky crust.
In Santa Fe's dry climate, I find I always need to add more water than called for in other pie crust recipes. Start with 6 tablespoons and keep going until the dough comes together. I sometimes use more than 8, depending on the weather.
Makes enough for 2 (9-inch) pies or 1 double-crust pie
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon sugar
6 tablespoons lard or vegetable shortening
6 tablespoons butter
6 or more tablespoons ice water
1) Put the flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl and stir together well with a fork.
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2) Using a pastry blender, your hands or two butter knives, work the butter and lard into the flour until it resembles coarse meal with some big, pea-sized chunks.
3) Sprinkle the water 1 tablespoon at a time over the flour, tossing with a fork in between each addition. Add just enough water so that the mixture comes together and can be gathered into two balls of equal size.
4) Press each ball into a disc about 1 inch thick. Wrap the discs with plastic wrap and refrigerate while you make the filling, at least ½ hour.
Lattice-Topped Apple Pie
Make this pie for people you really love. If they don't love it, they don't deserve your affections.
Serves 8 sensible people (or 2 big pigs over a long weekend)
2½ pounds sweet/tart apples, peeled, cored and sliced ½-inch thick
1 cup brown sugar
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 pinch kosher salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon allspice
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 recipe All-Purpose Pie Pastry
2 tablespoons milk
Preheat the oven to 425° F.
1) In a large bowl, gently toss the apples with the sugar, lemon, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and flour.
2) On a clean, lightly floured board or smooth countertop, use a rolling pin to roll 1 ball of dough out into a 1/8-inch-thick circle. Transfer it to a pie plate.
3) Fill the lined pie plate with the apple mixture.
4) Roll out the second ball of dough the same way as the first. Use a small knife to cut the crust into 1-inch wide strips. Evenly space 5 strips horizontally across the pie. Fold the second and fourth horizontal strips back on themselves and place 1 long strip down the middle of the pie, perpendicular to the others. Replace the second and fourth strips, then fold horizontal strips 1, 3 and 5 back over vertical strip one and lay another vertical strip next to it. Continue until you've reached the edge of the pie, then repeat for the other side. If this makes no sense, feel free to apply your strips in any design you like. Just make sure you tuck the strips under the edge of the bottom crust and press them together to seal.
5) Brush the crust lightly with a little milk and place the pie on a baking sheet to catch any dripping juices. Transfer to the oven and bake for about 45 minutes, until a knife inserted into the center slides smoothly through the apples.
6) Allow the pie to rest for at least 15 minutes before serving.
