Pi(e) Day Recipe

While today celebrates the magical number, Pi, that helps you to calculate your cap size (measure your head and divide by 3.14), we also think it’s a great day to make a beautiful and delicious pie from scratch.

Our graphic designer Faye (and her son Hunter) baked up a pie for the photo on our homepage, and was kind enough to share the recipe. We hope you enjoy it!

Traditional Apple Pie

For those of you who love pie, here is a recipe that is simple, wholesome and just plain good.  Made with—what grandma would call the secret ingredient—LARD.

Pie Crust Ingredients

• 1 cup lard
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2 ¼ cups all purpose white flour
• ¼ cup cool water

Apple Filling Ingredients

• 6 cups tart apples cored & peeled, cut into small bite-sized pieces
• 1 cup granulated white sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3 tbsp cornstarch

Directions

1. Cut the lard, salt and flour using a pastry cutter, until the flour and lard are evenly cut into small chunks.
2. Add the cool water and form a ball of dough.
3. Cut into 2 chunks, a little larger for the top crust.
4. Roll out the bottom dough and place bottom into the pie plate.
5. Mix filling together.
6. Add to the pie.
7. Roll out the top dough 2 inches larger than the pie plate.
8. Cut 3 small leaf shaped vents in the top, in a triangular shape. (It looks pretty!)
9. Lightly wet the bottom pie crust with water, so the top will stick and make a tight seal.
10. Place crust on top.
11. Gently roll the top crust under the bottom crust and push the 2 crusts together.
12. Finger pinch the top all the way around to make a fancy looking pie.
13. Brush the top of the crust with egg wash for a golden crust.
14. Sprinkle a cinnamon and sugar mixture on the top.
15. Bake at 375 degrees for 45-50 mins.

We used our own harvested organic apples that were frozen from last fall. This is a huge time saver, and a nice treat for winter pie! We cored and peeled them and froze in gallon freezer bags.

Lard makes a flavorful, flaky crust and rolls out beautifully without cracking. We’ve tried butter and Crisco and it just doesn’t hold together as nice. Feel free to experiment and use your own crust recipe if lard doesn’t work for you.