We're lucky in America: we can get good apples almost year 'round. October is prime time for apples, so get some and make an American dessert! Stuffed with apples simmered in cider, oh my, this is one good pie. Won a blue ribbon in a traditional apple pie contest in 2010.

Becky Appleseed Apple Pie

Prep Time: 1 hour
Baking Time: 50 minutes
Serves: 8
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Ingredients

Crust

3 c. sifted bleached flour

1 c. Crisco

1 1/2 t. salt

2 T. apple cider vinegar mixed into 1 ½ c. ice water

Mix flour and salt. Cut the shortening into flour/salt mix, then add 8-10 T. of the water/vinegar mix a little at a time, fluffing with forks -- just until dough forms a ball. Divide into two 5" rounds, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and chill 1 hour.

Filling

7-8 apples, peeled and sliced (7 c.); brush lightly with lemon juice (1 T.)

4 c. sweet apple cider (see Baker’s Notes, below, for shortcut)

3 T. flour

2 dashes salt

2/3 c. sugar

1 t. cinnamon

2 shakes nutmeg

2 T. melted butter

Directions

1. Boil the cider gently until it reduces to about 2/3 cup (takes about an hour).

2. Add the apple slices to the cider and simmer til the apples are about ½ done, stirring. Move the apples and about 1/2 c. of the liquid into a bowl.

3. Combine the dry ingredients and stir into apples. Stir in melted butter. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

4. Preheat the oven to 400.

5. Roll out and line pie dish, fill with cooled apple mixture, arranging the apples to fill the crust, and set back in refrigerator while doing the top crust. Roll out top crust and transfer onto pie. Trim, seal edges and sculpt edge of crust. Create a design* to vent steam during baking.

6. If desired, glaze with a mixture of equal parts beaten egg and ½ and ½.

7. Bake 50-60 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Check partway through the baking and add a crust protector on the outside edge if it's getting brown.

Baker’s Notes and Tips and Tricks

To save time, you can use 1/4 c. of frozen apple juice concentrate, thawed. Heat the sliced apples in the microwave briefly (1-2 minutes), or until they are warm and just start to cook. Then stir in the apple juice concentrate and other ingredients. Cooking the apples this way or in the boiled cider will allow them to release some of their juices, which will shrink them just slightly. Then you can fill the bottom crust more fully with apples and eliminate the air gap that can occur in the finished pie between the cooked apples and the top crust.

*For fun, cut a little (1”) apple from the center of the top crust. Then, using a sharp paring knife, cut out tiny vents to look like apple seeds around the perimeter of the crust. Hence the "appleseed" look! Sorry I don't have a picture of this -- I'll make one and update the photo :-)