This recipe makes a 10-inch pie. If you’re going to mess up your kitchen, you might as well go for the big one!
Apple filling – Measure the following ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Dash of salt
10 cups thinly sliced pared apples (I combine Granny Smiths with Yellow Delicious or Jonagolds, achieving tart and sweet and great texture all at once.)
Mix all dry ingredients in separate bowl, then spoon over prepared apple slices and stir to coat all slices. Set aside and prepare crust.
Crust ( 2 layers): Measure 2 2/3 cups flour and 1 tsp. salt into bowl. Cut in 1 cup Crisco shortening using pastry cutter or 2 knives. When consistency is
that of small peas, sprinkle in very cold water (7-8 TBsp), one tablespoon at a time, mixing until all flour is moistened and dough almost cleans side of bowl. To ensure great pastry, use cold water and avoid overhandling the dough throughout the entire preparation. Place half of dough on sheet of waxed paper, cover with additional sheet and roll into a flat circle somewhat larger than the pie plate edges. Flip the rolled dough (still attached to the bottom waxed paper) and loosen gently with knife so pastry falls into pie plate.
Pack tightly and mound apple slice mixture into crust-lined pie plate. Prepare another circular sheet of pastry as before. Using fluting wheel or knife, make rows of slits in the pastry for steam vents. Then flip that sheet of pastry over and onto the mounded apples and remove the waxed paper gently with a knife. Seal edges of upper and lower pastries, making decorative thumbprints as you go along. Cover edges of pastry with strips of aluminum foil, loosely wrapped around to prevent excessive browning. (The aluminum should be removed after 40 minutes of baking.) Place in center of preheated oven with drip pan on rack below. Bake 50 minutes at 425 degrees F or until crust begins to brown and juice bubbles through the slits.