Valentine's Day Apple Pie or Pie for Someone You Love

By mitzzy

If measures and precision were not part of recipe writing or too-zealous bakers (who forget it's not about the measure, it's about the heart of the matter..), how would this baker write the perfect recipe for an Old-Fashioned Apple Pie? Easy as pie....you write from the heart and true spirit of the baker. It's pie recipes as they really should be written.....for the recipe that goes with this tribute, visit Old Fashioned Apple Pie.

Ingredients

• Enough butter pastry for one nice sized tart pan
• 6 to 8 6 to 8 8 apples, such as a combination of Golden Delicious because they keep their shape well and Cortland or Macs, because they are crisp and sweet and have good apple character - which is everything in an apple pie
• Sugar - if you are sweet, use less (I use less). If you are cold-hearted or you are jaded (as life in the city can make you) use more.
• to to to really necessary in apple pie but I like it, as do those I love, and I bake to please. And cinnamon, like spice is wont to do, adds heat to love.
• Touch of lemon juice - balances the tart with the sweet.
• Smidgen of apple cider - if you have a notion because love is spirited if not an elixir

Preparation

Step 1

Directions: pare your apples. Dream a little while doing this, but take care not to cut yourself. Think only good thoughts. Good thoughts flavor everything just so. This is why most everything some bakers make is both ambrosial and stirring.

Butter your pan - preferably a nice French pan. A nice copper pan or a graniteware pan, while plain, will do the trick. Plain can be simple and pure. Be mindful of simple things.

Arrange your apples on the pan bottom. Dot with butter and dust with sugar. Lay a kiss of cinnamon on top, and one smaller kiss of lemon juice.

Roll your crust out - it might rip if you lack experience but if you are gentle, easy going, and thorough, it will respond. All dough knows the baker's intentions and it will respond in kind. Take time to touch the dough to have a sense of how it feels. Think of someone you love who will later enjoy your efforts. Take your time.

Lay the dough out on the apples, press lightly - properly rolled dough will naturally curve itself around the apples. Make sure it all nestles together just so. Bake in a hot stove ...not scorching but just enough heat. Reduce heat and let things settle.

Bring it out of the oven and with one deft movement - it is all about oh knowing and not knowing but hoping. Flip it over on a serving plate. Some times this is messy...but it is always good. Apple pie like this is best when it's shared. Best at midnight or early morning. It is not a dish for company. It is a dish for two.