Half-Moon Pies

By Joelene

Ingredients

• For biscuit dough:
• 2 2 2 cups self-rising flour
• 5 5 5 tablespoons cold Crisco shortening
• 7 7 ounces 7 fluid ounces buttermilk (a scant cup)
• Flour for rolling out dough
• For fried apples:
• 6 6 to large apples (Jonagold, Granny Smith or red delicious). They don't have to be tart for this.
• or
• 1 1 1 jar home-dried apples. (Originally, stewed dried apples.)
• or
• 2 2 2 packets store-bought dried apples.
• 3 3 3 tablespoons butter
• to or allspice to taste
• If you use fresh apples, you should peel and slice them and saute in butter first, then put the lid on and let them steam.
• to either case, don't add the sugar and spice until near the end, to prevent the sugar from burning.
• to apples don't need to be tart, like those for apple pie, but sweet.

Preparation

Step 1

Making the pies:

Make up biscuit dough and roll it out thin. Starting at the edge of the dough, place a dessert plate on the dough and cut around it with a knife. With 2 or 3 tablespoons of apple mix, cover most of one side of the circle. Fold the dough over the apples and, dipping a fork into flour, press firmly all around to seal the pocket. Dipping fork in flour again, pierce the turnover several times to make steam holes.

Heat a large frying pan and fry pies in a 1/2 inch of Crisco or corn oil. Fry until brown and crispy on both sides.

They are good even the next day, cold.

Fried pies are so loved in the North Carolina mountains that even first-graders are taught how to make small half-moon pies at school, using electric frying pans.