Sometimes All You Need is a Piece of Pie

Marcel Proust had his Madeleine cakes. When he dipped one of these scallop shaped desserts into his tea..it took him back to memories of times past. What takes you back to your fondest memories of the past…to that period of your life when everything seemed surrounded in golden light, a time when you were carefree and time seemed to stand still? One of these remembrances for me…is my grandmother’s apple pie…simple…and yet it fills me up on several levels…nourishing both my body and soul…bringing back memories of my grandmother’s Delft blue wooden kitchen chairs with their handmade braided wool seat covers, her matching blue spice rack with milk glass spice jars lined up in neat rows, each adorned with red metallic lids, scenes of Holland imprinted on each in blue…windmills, Dutch people in wooden clogs and traditional dress…the names of the jars’ contents printed in red Gothic lettering…Ginger, Cinnamon, Allspice, Cloves, Salt, Mustard and Pepper, my grandmother’s wonderful smile and kind words, the sun shining through her many glass prisms hanging in her kitchen windows, my grandmother letting me help her with the cutting up of the apples and the rolling of the crust, reading at the kitchen table while wonderful smells drifted out of the oven as my grandmother tidied up the cooking area…perfection, peace, comfort, love.

Grandma Dinah’s Apple Pie Recipe

Prepare the filling and set aside until the crust is ready:

Peel and slice 8 apples of your choice.

Mix the apples with:

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

a pinch of salt

2 Tablespoons flour

1/2 cup sugar

Crust:Mix 2 cups of white flour with 1 teaspoon of salt

Add 1/2 cup oil and mix

Sprinkle 3 Tablespoons of cold water on the top of the mixture and mix well.

Divide the dough in half.

Roll the first half between pieces of waxed paper. Peel off and discard the waxed paper.

Put the bottom crust n a 9 inch pie plate.

Add the filling.

Roll the top crust. Remove and discard the waxed paper.

Put the crust on the top of the pie. Pinch and trim the edges. Add a few vent marks with the prongs of a fork. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes and 375 degrees for 30 minutes. If you find the edges are browning too quickly…wrap the strips of aluminum foil around them. Enjoy!