Grandmas Still Know Best

About author / Amy Powell

World traveler; gourmet 30 minute meals; lover of exotic ingredients; winner on FoodTV's Chefs vs City; graduate French Culinary Institute. Her recipes will tantalize your taste buds.

It took me a week to polish off the last crumbs of Thanksgiving’s apple pie. I had been slowly savoring it as each bite for me was a journey, with juicy apple redolent of fall spices, crunch of brown sugar and oats from the crumb topping, flaky bite of the pastry crust. This pie, I realized, was the coming together of several generations of shared kitchen wisdom, all beginning with my great grandmother Nadine.

When I was young, Gramma Nadine, as we called her, would descend from Idaho to our Southern California town once a year bringing with her tales of snow-filled landscapes and her lifetime of baking experience. I would push a large plastic bin over to the counter to stand beside her, my head just tall enough to see the action. There I would watch in wonder as flour, sugar, and butter, magically coalesced between the touch of her weathered hands to form a lump of beige dough.

She showed me how to dust a cutting board and rub down a rolling pin with a light touch of flour. I watched her roll out the dough in long, smooth strokes, rubbing her hand across the enlarging circle to ensure even thickness. After transferring her rolled out pastry to a pan, I watched her nimble fingers press out an undulating edge. She’d hand me a fork. I always looked forward to piercing the inside of the crust with the tines, assured by Gramma that this step was so important, the crust would not cook properly were it not for my carefully spaced punctures.

Gramma Nadine knew a lot more than crust. Under her tutelage I learned to thicken pudding with cornstarch to fill a chocolate cream pie. I discovered that egg whites, like snow topped mountains, could have peaks and whipped cream could be made with beaters and powdered sugar instead of a metal can with a bendable tip.

Most of what I learned of pies I learned from Nadine. But this past Thanksgiving I had a new trick to learn, and another grandmother to thank.

My second cousin was joining us for dinner this year. She offered to make her family’s traditional chocolate pecan pie with more than a subtle splash of bourbon. When I volunteered to make an apple pie she had some free advice for me: her grandma’s recipe.

Considering myself fairly well versed in the construction of an excellent apple pie, I was at first skeptical. However, when my grandaunt Marguerite’s recipe arrived I quickly honed in on her secret. The apples, peeled and sliced, were to be macerated in brown sugar and spices overnight. This would, in theory, sweeten and season the apples while releasing a lot of juices, juices that can sometimes lead to soggy crust. Given my cousin’s insistence that this was the best apple pie recipe she’d ever had, I was willing to give it a try.

My apples released a lot of juice overnight. Spooning it into my homemade crust, I had to guess on how much juice to add back in. I didn’t want it too dry but adding all the juice could be disastrous. For the topping, I also cheated a bit on Marguerite’s recipe, opting instead to add some rolled oats to the crumb mixture for extra chew and crunch (something Grandma Nadine was fond of).

The pie emerged 50 minutes later golden brown on the scalloped crust, a luscious mound of plump apples glistening with their juices and capped with a now hard crust of oats and butter. But the proof was in the first bite: the apples were tender but still slightly crisp with just the right amount of spiced syrup. The crust was thin, buttery, and most importantly, homemade. I think both grandmas would be proud.

Serves/Makes: 8

***Crust***

• 1 cup flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 7 tablespoons cold butter
• 1 egg
• ice water

***Filling***

• 7 tart apples (mom uses Jonathans or Rome Beauties)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 dash ground nutmeg
• 1 dash salt

***Topping***

• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 6 tablespoons flour
• 7 tablespoons butter