Sally Cevasco’s Famous Apple Crumb Pie

Apple Crumb Pie

First Published in the King Arthur Flour’s Catalogue in 1993 see original below with photo of Sally and her daughter Jenna

Crust

1 Cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

¼ tsp. salt

½ cup solid vegetable shortening

1 – 3 TBS. ice water (depending on how much you need to get it to stick together)

Preheat oven to 350º F

Put the flour and salt in a bowl big enough to work in half the shortening with your pastry blender. Put the remaining shortening in and blend ‘til it looks mixed, but lumpy. It’s OK to handle and mix at this point, but once you start to add the ice water, overhandling will make the curst tough, so try to keep handling to a minimum. The water should be ice cold and added gradually, mixing a little with a spoon after each addition.

When dough starts to hold together a bit you can grab hold of it with your hand sand form it into a ball. Be sure to use plenty of flour on your hands and on the wooden board, where you’ll roll it out. If it’s really sticky then you’ve added too much water so try to knead a little more flour into it, folding it in on the board. Remember don’t succumb to the dreaded Pie Crust Paranoia (you can do it!) Usually the harder the dough is to handle, the flakier the crust, so its’ worth it to be patient.

Transfer the dough to a floured board. Roll the dough as thinly and evenly as possible. Don’t worry about any imperfections when the crust is rolled out, because after you transfer it to the pan, any problems can be easily patched.

Filling

8 Cups peeled, cored and sliced apples*

¾ Cup granulated sugar

¼ Cup King Arthur Flour

up to 1 teaspoon cinnamon (to taste)

up to ¼ teaspoon nutmeg (to taste, I usually leave this out. Just a personal preference)

*Paula Reds are our first choice, then Cortlands our second; both are juicy and tart which makes for great baking apples. McIntosh are also acceptable.

Now for the fun part! For this we use our apple peeler/corer/slicer from the catalogue. It makes dealing with the apples so much fun that th e people in our house argue about whose turn it is to peel the apples. Really!

Once the apples are processed they can be mixed with the other ingredients. If the apples aren’t very juicy, you may want to cut back on the amount of flour a little. We like to use about ½ teaspoon of cinnamon and no nutmeg.

Topping

1 Cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

½ Cup brown sugar

½ Cup (1 stick) firm butter

The topping always seems to need the human touch to get the proper consistency. So, I cut the butter up with a knife a bit then mix it with my hands until everything is mixed together but still a little lumpy. Spread this mixture evenly over the top fo the apples.

Bake pie in a preheated 350° oven for about an hour. You may want to put a cookie sheet under it to catch any drips and prevent burning on the bottom of the oven. Check at about 50 mins. It is done when the apple filling is bubbling and the topping is a golden brown. YUMMY

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2 Responses to “Sally Cevasco’s Famous Apple Crumb Pie”

  1. Tree says:

    Yum! I’ll try it for Christmas.

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