Pie

For most people, Thanksgiving’s centerpiece is the turkey. For me, it’s dessert. I love my mother in law’s apple pies so much that I save 3/4 of my plate for dessert and call dibs on the leftovers. She shared this recipe with me and I am so excited to share it with you. The original recipe is here but after reading reviews and some other tips/tricks, I’ve edited it to include all the suggestions that I found helpful. I make the pie crust the night before since most well-rated recipes call for letting the dough chill overnight to ensure a flaky and tender base. There are a lot of debates about which type of baking dish is best: glass vs. metal. I like the glass since you can see the color of the crust to ensure that it’s cooked all the way through.

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This is my mother-in-law’s go to recipe for pie crust. The original recipe is here. The most frequent comments that I’ve seen on homemade pie crusts include the importance of cold ingredients/tools and not working the dough too much. Using a small measured amount of ice cold water so the dough just sticks together ensures that your crust won’t be too tough or too crumbly. Once the dough is made you’ll want to refrigerate it for 2 hours up to overnight to ‘relax the gluten’ and re-solidify the fats in the dough so it says in a flaky state and will help prevent shrinking as it bakes. I have a hard time eye-balling 9″ diameter so I just turn the pie plate over to trace the outline on some wax paper so I know when I’ve reached the appropriate diameter and then go 2″ outside of the line to ensure I can have enough height for a 1/2″ crimp on the crust. (more…)