Mary Ellen's Famous Easy Homemade Apple Pie
Best served warm with real whipped cream (never use the gross tubs of “Cool Whip”!) or homemade vanilla ice cream, of course!
Ingredients
Crust -- note that this makes two pies with two pie crusts each, one for the bottom and top — Mary Ellen's pans are 10 inch:
- 5 cups flour — I use organic all-purpose flour
- 2 cups shortening — I use this shortening or you could also use leaf lard!
- 1 teaspoon vinegar — this is the kind I use
- 1 egg
- Dash of salt-- this sea salt is my favorite
- Water
Filling (enough for one pie):
- Peel and slice Macintosh or Ida Red apples-- that's what Mary Ellen uses, I'll also use honey crisp sometimes, organic apples are best since apples are highly sprayed. You'll need enough apples to mound up, approximately 3 pounds or about 8 apples. Pass out the peels to your family as you're making this, they're so good by themselves or maybe with a little cinnamon, but don't toss them. Organic apples are too valuable to waste any part of them!
- 2 Tablespoons flour
- 1/2 cup sugar — I use organic cane sugar or organic palm sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon — I love this cinnamon
- Dash sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 5 thick pats of butter-- see why I love her?! By the way, pastured butter is best
- Little bit of milk for moistening
Instructions
- Mix flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together, then stir the apples in and toss everything around well. Set aside until your bottom crust is ready.
- Make your crust... Mix flour and shortening together. Place vinegar, egg and salt into a 1 cup measure, and fill it the rest of the way with water. Mix it with the flour and shortening until it's all stirred in and not too sticky.
- Separate the dough equally into 4 pieces. Using a rolling pin, roll out two separate crusts at a time onto a floured surface until each one is a little bigger than your pie pan. Roll the crust carefully over the rolling pin, carry over to your ungreased pie pan, and then unroll, being careful not to let it rip. (If it does, just smush it back together.)
- Pour the filling over the top and place 5 thick pats of butter around the top of the filling. Moisten the edges with a little milk, so your top crust will stick to the bottom.
- Move your second crust onto the filling, pinch the edges together and tuck the crust under all around the edges. Don't forget to make two slits in the top so it doesn't explode in your oven.
- It doesn't have to look perfect, but it will taste that way!
- Do the same for your 2nd pie.
- Bake at 400* until golden (or a lower temp if your oven runs hot like mine does), start checking it after 40-50 minutes or so. If the edges start to get too brown, cover them with one of these -- I love those things!
- Once it's out of the oven, you'll want to let it cool so the filling sets up a bit, otherwise it'll be runny. After it sets out a bit then it's just right and so tasty!