In Which I Attempt "The Best All-American Apple Pie" - Part Three

Finally getting to the point: How was the pie? (A bit of a derailment due to an outbreak of lice/nits in elementary school. Two days of constantly combing my daughter's very long, tangle-friendly hair. And lots of laundry and vacuuming, etc, etc.)

The pie was delicious. Was it worth all that bother? I'm not sure. Visually, it wasn't nearly as beautiful as I expected once baked. The crust, being fantastically flaky, looked darker and rougher than I'm used to.

Crust- Extremely flaky, proceed with caution when serving and follow Rose's recommendation to wait four hours before serving. This was the most intensely flaky crust I've ever made. It was almost croissant flaky. And very buttery-tasting. If the flaky crust thing is what draws you- or that hot firefighter who lives next door- this is your crust!

Filling- I used organic Gala apples. Sliced 1/4 inch thick, they retained their shape and didn't go all mushy on me. I included one or two organic Granny Smith apples too and just for giggles, left their peels on. The macerating of the apples and cooking down the juices with butter made the filling richer than I'm used to- excellent when hot, but once cool, there were bits of resolidified butter in the pie dish.

Process- Oy vey, was that a lot of work compared to the usual apple pie! Making the crust the day before is definitely the way to go. This is not your let's-have-dessert-I'll-whip-up-a-pie kind of deal. Aside from simple assembly and baking, we're looking at up to five to six hours of wait time. Granted, most of this time is not active prep time, it's waiting time, so this is a great pie to making while you're writing that novel or enjoying a hanging-around-the-house day. Also a good girlfriend baking day pie- lots of time to catch up while you're waiting for those apples to macerate.

NOTE: Macerate- to make soft by steeping or soaking in a liquid, from the Latin maceratus, past participle of macerare. I always thought "macerate" sounded rather painful, as in "While grating the horseradish, I accidentally macerated my knuckles."

My Personal Opinion- Delish with a dollop of vanilla ice cream! But super rich- I could not eat more than a small slice, which is really saying something because I often have a hard time stopping after one large slice of pie. Not so yummy cold; the solid butter bits didn't help. A good pie to impress with if served warm!

#1 Daughter Review: "It's the best thing I've ever tasted!" She ate two slices and she's not a huge pie person.

Guest Tasters: The boys all seemed to really like it. There was a lot of nomming and scraping of bowls.