Easiest Crust Ever (Apple Pie)

The apple pie I made for Thanksgiving dinner has been staring at me.

I've made apple pies before, but this one was different. You see, I used a different crust. We had a friend coming to dinner that couldn't have any dairy. My first instinct was to use the pie recipe I use for pumpkin pies, you know, this one.

But then I remembered a pie crust from Roland Messnier that didn't use any dairy, only shortening for the fat. When I mixed up the pie crust, I was amazed that it didn't like to be worked by hand, it was so sticky it could only be worked by my mixer. Because I'm neurotic and a little OCD, I've been working at making pie crusts by hand. I just didn't believe that a great crust could come from a mixer. This will be the pie crust I use when I open my pie shop.

The pie was wonderful. Nice tart apples, enough moist filling to carry flavor, but not enough to be a soupy mess, beautiful brown crust surrounding the whole thing. And through the whole experience, I kept thinking:

"I wish I could write about this."

A Little Bit of Improvisation

When people talk about cooking (savory, not in an oven,) and baking (sweet, in an oven,) they often talk about improvising in the kitchen. To them, people who like to bake like to have things done precisely, with temperatures and measurements and timings clearly laid out. And on the other hand, people who like to cook can just free-wheel through the kitchen, making things up as they go. It's like the baker is the control freak aunt who has to have everything just so and keeps plastic on the furniture so it never, ever gets dirty. The cook is the fun uncle who never shows up on time and is always fun when he does show up.

Do you see why I take exception with this characterization?

Something a little, well, different.

If you think about it, you've probably eaten no more than a dozen pies in your life. Seriously, after the big names that everyone knows, the pickings get a little slim. You've most likely eaten:

Apple

Pumpkin

LMP

Pecan

Banana Cream

Coconut Cream

Chocolate Cream

Peanut Butter

Berry (a catch all covering all summer berry pies)

Peach

And, um, yeah...that's probably about it. Sure, anyone who reads this list will be able to think of a couple more, but the common variations get narrow really fast. 

I remember complaining, as a kid, about a culinary experiment my mother put in front of me: "Why can't you just make the food that you know we like?" (As an adult, I'm already annoyed with my nine-year-old self. "Just eat it, kid, you might like it." But that's beside the point.)