APPLE PIE: Bake-off at the State Fair

As the apple pie champion at the Unionville Community Fair, Robin Mastrippolito of Embreeville got the chance to enter the statewide competition at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg this past weekend. But despite Robin's best effort with what I hear was an amazing apple-raspberry pie, Jeralyn Adams, a woman from Dimock Township, Susquehanna County, took the blue ribbon with a pie using Northern Spy, Jonagold and Pink Lady apples. Here's the winning recipe:

Crust:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup lard

1/3 cup butter, unsalted

4-5 Tablespoons cold water

Mix together the flour and salt in a bowl. Blend in the lard and butter with a fork or pastry blender until the crumb is pea-sized or smaller. Add water, one tablespoon at a time, blending gently until the dough almost cleans the sides of the bowl. Divide the dough in half and shape it loosely into two balls. Roll out each ball in a circle on a floured surface to fit an 8 1/2 or 9-inch pie pan. Line the bottom of the pan with one crust. 

Filling: 

5-6 cups tart Pennsylvania apples (cored, peeled and thinly sliced)

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup corn starch

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon 

dash of ground nutmeg

1 Tablespoon butter

Mix the apples, sugar, corn starch, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl. Pour into a crust-lined pan. Dot the top of the filling with butter.

Top with the remaining crust. Seal the edges. Pierce the top crust with a fork at intervals to release steam while baking. 

Topping: 

1 Tablespoon milk

1 Tablespoon cinnamon-sugar (1 Tablespoon of sugar combined with 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon)

Brush the top of the crust with milk. Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar. 

Protect the crust edges from over-browning by covering the edges with strips of foil or purchased crust protector. 

Bake at 425 degrees for 40-50 minutes, removing the edge protector for the last 15 minutes of baking. If the top of the crust starts to over-brown, cover it loosely with foil.