Why was it so good, you ask? Well, let me tell you.
First of all, I didn't buy the apples for this pie. Instead I used the last few apples from our backyard trees, supplemented with a couple from the fruit bowl. This produced a lovely mixture of textures, and a much more nuanced flavor than a filling made of a single variety such as Granny Smith. It was kind of a pain to peel and cut up the backyard apples, which were smaller (...and wormier) than those you find in the grocery store. But it was totally worth it. Too bad I can't really replicate the proportions.
The second reason this pie was so good is that I messed around with my time-honored pie crust recipe. Let me start from the beginning here. Back when I was a wee lassie I learned to make pie from my mother, who had of course learned to make pie from her mother. My mother's mother, Helen Hooper Willard, passed away the year before I was born, so I never had the opportunity to meet my grandmother -- though photographic evidence suggests that I look a lot like her. Anyway, at a relatively early age I had mastered her secret recipe and since then, every time I have made a pie I have thought a bit about the generations of women who had made the current pie possible.
It's not as if I have never before monkeyed with the pie crust recipe, though. Much to Mom's chagrin, when I started making pies in my own kitchen I added a small portion of whole wheat flour to the pie crust mixture. I like the color and the heartiness that the whole grain adds to the crust. Then, during the years in Africa I was forced to use butter in place of the traditional vegetable shortening, which simply was not available. (I may once have made a pie crust with ghee from a can...). Since our return to the USA I have used half butter (for flavor) and half shortening (for texture) in my pie crusts. My mother has not complained.
For this most recent pie, I decided to experiment with the vodka pie crust recipe that has been advocated by Cook's Illustrated, among others. I am sure their recipe is just fine as written, but I relied upon my own proportions of flour, salt, and fat. Instead of using cold water to bind them I used a mixture of half water, half vodka. I guess the idea is that the vodka evaporates more quickly and more thoroughly than water, while still providing the liquid necessary to bring the dough together.
The difference was evident as soon as I started to roll out the dough. The vodka makes it much more elastic, so it took me about half the usual time to prepare the two crusts. And once the pie was baked -- simply amazing. It was probably the flakiest pie crust I have ever made.
My dear departed grandmother belonged to a fundamentalist church, so I'd guess there was never any vodka in her house. My mother would probably be horrified to know there was alcohol in the pie crust. But I like to think that they would both be fine with my desire to make the best pies I possibly can. After all, I have to live up to their standards.
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