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A Grandmother’s Apple Pie

Good apple pies are a considerable part of our
 domestic happiness.
-jane austen

Apple pie…..
it will always remind me of my Gram.

This is one of my favorite vintage photos with Gramma at a family beach house in Marshfield, Massachusetts sometime in the late ’70s. How hilarious is it that my brothers and I all have various lengths of the same haircut?

My Gramma was Eliza Gavigan Tunney and I am happy to share the same Gaelic name with her:
Eilis, pronounced el-leesh.

I was the twelfth of her fifteen grandchildren and I will always remember what a wonderful cook she was. She had a natural ability with food, and I think of her often as I work in my kitchen. How I wish I could see her method for putting together a Thanksgiving turkey or what ingredients she put into her yummy apple pies.

Isn’t it amazing how much food is embedded into happy memories? This is what I love most about cooking:  the happy memories that my family is making around a table, the associations that my children are creating between different foods and people in their life. My husband talks about his grandmother’s delicious homemade pizza that was made on big baking sheets, my mother fondly remembers the taste of her own mother’s Irish bread, and I think of Gramma whenever I make an apple pie.

Now let me just tell you that I have made lots of pies but they never come close to the taste of hers. That amazing pie exists only in my memory. I have tried so many different recipes over the years but this is the only one that really knocks my socks off – I would have to say it’s the closest that I think I’ll ever get to Gramma’s perfection! And the best part – this is a grandmother’s recipe! Not my grandmother, but another treasured grandmother  – whose memory lives on in her rockin apple pie!!

This recipe is adapted from Apple Pie by Grandma Ople. Grandma Ople’s Apple Pie is the #1 apple pie recipe at allrecipes.com, earning 5 out of 5 stars, reviewed over 4,000 times and saved by over 116,000 people! I incorporated some minor changes from commenters and while my end result doesn’t look so beautiful the taste was divine….even with store-bought crusts (gasp!!)  (Sorry Gramma! I’ll make homemade crusts next time and try to make the top look a little more presentable.)

This apple pie recipe basically calls for making a syrup with butter & sugar that is added to the apples, and also spread on the top of the crust.

Ingredients

  • 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  • 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 8 Granny Smith apples – peeled, cored and sliced
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 egg white

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and cinnamon and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.
  • Place the bottom crust in your pan. Brush with egg white (this prevents the crust from getting soggy when baked.)
  • Reserve 1/2 cup of the butter/sugar syrup. Add apples to remaining syrup and toss to coat.
  • Fill bottom crust with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with second crust.
  • Brush top crust with reserved syrup. Make sure the syrup is still warm before spreading or it will clump.
  • Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.

What food conjures up a fond memory for you?

Please share, I’d love to hear! 
 

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Comments

  1. Privet and Holly says

    Just LOVED the
    sweet memories
    attached to this
    post! What a very
    cute picture! Love
    that your gramma
    was down on the
    ground with all
    of you in her jazzy
    summer dress : )
    Can't wait to try
    this pie…..

    Happy Monday!

    xx Suzanne

    Reply

  4. Moore or Less Cooking says

    I love your stories! That looks like THE BEST apple pie!! I really would love a slice Lisa!!

    Nettie

    Reply

  6. Jaima of Ring Around the Rosies says

    Hi Lisa!

    This is Jaima, Three Boys Contributor! I just wanted to stop by and thank you for your sweet comments on my recent post! Browsing through your great blog & I'm your newest follower 🙂

    Reply

  7. Carrie @ Hazardous Design says

    Your story about your grandmother was so touching and reminded me of my own. Whenever I'd help my grandmother bake an apple pie, she'd always make me a little apple turnover with the leftover apples and crust as a treat for helping her 🙂

    Reply

  10. A Vintage Vine says

    Wonderful post! Grammy looks so happy in that picture! No kidding, I had a Dorthy Hamill hair cut too….I should post a picture, that would be too funny! I was thirteen when I had mine, I think I was in 8th grade. Great memories!

    Reply

  11. René says

    What a sweet post and yes, many family memories are created around food. I am making an apple crisp this weekend, but now I'm wondering if I should try this recipe instead.

    Reply