Have a Safe Fourth: Double Crust Apple Pie

O beautiful for spacious skies
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties
Above thy fruited plain

Growing up in the South of France, my friends and I would look forward to Tuesdays at 8:00 when our favorite American tv shows would light up our television.  I clearly remember crowding into my Grandmother’s living room with all my cousins as we marveled over life in America: The cars!  The houses!  The huge roads! The feasts!  From the first moment I watched an episode of Starsky and Hutch, I was hooked.  From then on, when people would ask me what I wanted to do when I grew up, I would easily respond, “I don’t know, but whatever it is, I am definitely going to do it in America!!!” 

Fast forward several decades later and I am still in awe of life in America.  I may not be as cool as Starsky or Hutch, but I feel really blessed to live and work in the United States.  Last year, I had the honor of becoming a US Citizen and to celebrate, my wife made me something she said was the most American dish she could think of – Apple Pie.  Now of course I had had Apple Pie before, but nothing, and I really do mean nothing, will ever be as sweet to me as the memory of this specific Apple Pie made for me in honor of attaining my childhood dream. 

So, with the Fourth of July heading our way this weekend, the recipe I want to share with you is…Apple Pie!

I wish you all a safe and happy Fourth and of course, Happy Birthday to America the Beautiful!

Chef Stephane

Apple Pie

Homemade Double Pie Crust:

• Use the ingredients and recipe from last week’s pie crust, except double the recipe and make two balls of dough.  After refrigerating, take one ball of dough out of the refrigerator, roll into an 11 inch pie crust and press it into your pie tin.  Leave the other one in the refrigerator until you have made the filling, below.  

Apple Filling

Ingredients:

• 6 cups Granny Smith apples
• 1 cup brown sugar, pack the cup
• 2 tblsp all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tblsp lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tblsp cold butter
• 1/4 cup milk
• Sugar for the top of the pie

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425.
2. Peel & slice the apples and place them in a large bowl.  Add the brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, lemon juice, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir to cover the apples completely with the mixture. Pour the apple mixture into the pie shell. Cut the butter into small squares and scatter them over the apples.
3. Remove the second dough ball from the refrigerator and roll it in the same way as the first. Lay it over the apples. Seal the top crust to the bottom crust by folding the overhanging dough under the bottom crust and fluting the edges.  Cut slits into the top so steam can escape.
4. Paint the top of the pie crust with the milk and then sprinkle the sugar over it. 
5. Bake the pie for 15 minutes and then remove it from the oven and cover the outside edge of crust to prevent it from burning.
6. Return pie to the oven and finish baking for about 25 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the juices are bubbling.
7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.
8. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.