Can she bake an apple pie? Of course!



Pair of apples. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

 It's Apple time here at A Cook and Her Books, where I'm celebrating one of the most valuable crops to my home state of Georgia - apples. What dish could express your cooking ability more than pie, and what is the ultimate expression of pie? Apple pie, of course!

I've made this apple cheddar pie several times this year - it came to me from PieLab, the home of pie goodness in Hale County, Alabama. It's even a prize-winning pie - I entered it into the North Georgia State Fair baking competition and it garnered a red ribbon - second place. (It should have won first place, but that's a story for another day). Not that I'm bitter or anything, it's just such a great pie, with a buttery crust flecked with shredded Cheddar cheese, and filled with sweet and cinnamon-y Granny Smith apples.

If you're hankering for an apple pie, give this version a try. The cheddar cheese in the crust gives it a rustic, hearty taste and texture. A slice of this treat and a cup of coffee (or juice for the kiddos) is a first-rate breakfast.

Apple Cheddar Pie. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Apple Cheddar Pie from Pie Lab


3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, chilled
1/2 pound shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1/4 cup ice water
1/4 cup white vinegar

7 large Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cubed
1 egg white, beaten
1 tablespoon white sugar

1. In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in cheese. Combine water and vinegar, and gradually stir in until mixture forms a ball. Divide dough in half and shape into balls. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

2. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C.) Roll one ball out to fit a 9 inch pie plate. Place bottom crust in pie plate. Roll out top crust and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, toss apples in lemon juice to prevent discoloration. Drain and discard any excess juice. Stir in sugar and cinnamon. Arrange rows of overlapping apple slices, working from outer rim in. Dot with butter. Cover with top pie crust. Seal and crimp edges with fork, then trim excess dough. Cut a few slashes in top crust to allow steam to escape.

4. Bake on cookie sheet in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and continue baking for about 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven, brush lightly with beaten egg, and sprinkle liberally with sugar. Bake 5 to 10 minutes more until sugar forms a crisp glaze. Remove pie from oven and let cool on a wire rack.

More apple recipes:

Apple crisp

French thin-crust apple tart

Classic apple dumplings

Short-cut apple dumplings

Applesauce

Apple blondie

My blue ribbon Morning Glory muffins include an apple for extra nutrition and flavor.

Two savory recipes on the site are made better with use apples: Mulligatawny soup and Easy Kid "Sushi."

Text and images copyright 2011, Lucy Mercer.

Mom's Apple Pie

This fall, with the abundance of fragrant and delicious organic apples from Farmer's Fresh, I got serious about pie making and baking. My mom is a wonderful cook, and bakes terrific cakes, but has always been intimidated by pie pastry, so, although I've learned a lot at my mom's apron strings, pie crust is not one of them.

My favorite resource is America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, and I used its recipe for this Double-Crust Apple Pie. The pie was loaded with about a dozen organic apples, mostly Golden Delicious, but a few Fujis in there as well. The Golden Delicious apples were spectacular, deeply fragrant and floral, and the crust was perfect.

Clean Out the Fridge Saturday

My Saturday was spent in the kitchen, trying to replace the chaos in my fridge with orderly packages and containers. I discovered that I have a hoarding disorder, perhaps brought about by the recent Wall Street rollercoaster ride. The vegetable drawer, for example, contained:

5 red, ripe tomatoes
3 zucchini
15 apples (ready for a pie)
1 large hand of ginger
4 limes
3 lemons
5 green tomatoes
1 lb. green beans
2 heads butter lettuce
1 bunch mustard & other greens
2 lbs. carrots
3 celery hearts
5 red onions
3 cooked sweet potatoes
1 butternut squash, intended for soup, or perhaps roasting
1 bunch of radishes
1 bunch of herbs that includes basil, lemon grass and some tiny yellow flowering tarragon stems

I also found in the dry storage: 4 sweet potatoes, 3 baking potatoes, 3 yukon gold potatoes, 15 red potatoes and 6 yellow onions.

Here's what became of the produce:

A. One absolutely luscious double-crust apple pie, stuffed to the brim with Golden Delicious, Fuji and Gala apples. Sure I poured off about a 1/2 cup of juice in the bottom of the plate, but that did nothing to dampen my pride.

B. A lovely salad with butter lettuce and radishes. I may cry the next time I eat iceberg lettuce from a bag. The lettuce and radishes are from my CSA and are the essence of freshness.

C. Evelyn's Briami. Probably the best roasted vegetables on the planet. I've mentioned Evelyn before. She's Evelyn from Athens, Greece, and you can find her on RecipeZaar. Her recipes are all about simplicity and good ingredients and tasty results. The briami recipe, which she assures me can be used with a variety of vegetables, can be found here.

Menu for High Summer

In high summer, I like to cook early in the day and reheat supper just before serving. This morning, I made my standard mac and cheese, which is not really special, but it's mild and creamy, just the way my kids like it. Field peas and okra were farm-fresh and served as side dishes beside the ham steak, which needed just five minutes on the griddle to cook through. The real star of the meal was a Double-Crust Apple Pie, made with hand-picked farm apples given to me by a friend. Another reason to love summer - just this week, I've been the lucky recipient of home-grown cherry tomatoes and Granny Smith apples!

Ham Steaks

From-Scratch Macaroni and Cheese

Field Peas

Okra

Double-Crust Apple Pie