Apple Pie for the American Soul: The VERY BEST of America!

Petsi Pies is an independent bakery that has been serving tasty handmade pies and pastries since Next to a furniture store in Greensborough, Alabama, is Pie Lab , an eatery that does more than sell delicious homemade pies with a delicious, flaky, almost puff pastry-like crust. Chef Seaborn Whatley, who worked in New York before returning to his home town, set up Pie Lab in an effort to bring people to the area — since opening, the eatery has helped start a rejuvenation of downtown. The young people of the town are an integral part of Pie Lab, which hires and trains local teens in an effort to break the impoverished system that has been in place for so long.

Of course, the pies are the center of this community-minded business, and the pies that they make are some of the best in the country, if not the world. For a Bacon Caramel Apple Pie recipe, click here. A divine combination of Granny Smith and Pink Lady apples, coated in a homemade caramel, covered with a Tahitian vanilla sugar-salted crust.

Their award winning pies are made by hand, with the best, fresh ingredients.

For a Caramel-Apple Pie Cookie recipe, click here. The pies at Royer Pie Haven which opened in are all handmade from scratch. If you are looking for something not-so-ordinary for your wedding day, you can order a 5- or tier wedding pie! For a Handheld Apple Pies recipe, click here. They make their popular apple crumb pie with locally sourced apples that sit under a layer of toasted oat streusel in an all-butter pastry crust.

For a Cheddar Apple Pie recipe, click here. Sugar Pie Bakery , opened in January , is a locally owned and operated business that is a real family affair — owner Gina Watts along with her husband and children work together to make sure things run smoothly. All of their menu items are made from scratch, and their apple crumb pie, with tart Granny Smith apples and a crumbly sweet topping, is sure to hit the spot. For an Amazing Apple Pie recipe, click here.

Golden Delicious apples, measures 9 inches, and weighs an incredible 10 pounds! The classic apple pie from Three Babes Bakeshop is made with organic apples, organic sweet cream butter, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and their own homemade spice blend. The pies are then topped with a hand-woven lattice and the edges are hand crimped. The final result is a pie that is flaky, buttery, and delicious! For a lovely Sour Cream Apple Pie recipe, click here. The Elegant Farmer is perhaps most famous for their signature apple pie baked in a paper bag.

The unique cooking method, using a brown paper bag, creates a crunchy top crust and light, flaky, old-fashioned bottom crust that has earned it the title of best pie in America on more than one occasion. For a Bacon Weave Apple Pie recipe, click here. This truck stop, located off of exit on Interstate 94, is a a must-stop location that is famous for its good food and in particular its pies, which are made from scratch and freshly baked every day.

Reviewers on Yelp praise the pies at Tower Travel Center , saying:. Service is excellent and friendly. But above all else; there is pie. Real homemade fabulous pie. There are whole pies for sale and there are slices of pie begging for attention. If you do not stop when you drive by, you will almost immediately regret your error and the thought of perfect pie will haunt you for miles.

For a Spiced Apple Pie recipe, click here. The main difference between a crepe and a pancake, after all, is the baking soda that gives American pancakes their signature fluffiness. While some attribute the invention of baking powder to British chemist Alfred Bird in the early 19 th century, Albala notes that the first American patent, registered in to Samuel Hopkins, was for an early chemical leavener. He also notes that while they exist elsewhere, these leaveners are used most often in the U. You'll now receive the top Eat Sip Trip stories each day directly in your inbox.

Meet the cheese-making buffalos who listen to Mozart and get massages. Make this chestnut gelato dessert from Chef's Table's Will Goldfarb. A 'Garbage Plate' is the drunk food of your dreams or nightmares. Get to know Appalachian food. All you need to know about the ever-growing butter coffee trend. In Japan, mochi is way more than just dessert. Please enter an email address. More American than apple pie: Email Sign up Like this article?

Gently work the edges of the disk with your fingers to eliminate large cracks in the disk. Place the disks in the refrigerator for at least an hour. It can hold in the refrigerator for up to a day. Mix the sugar, cinnamon, all-spice, nutmeg, and cloves in a small bowl. In a large bowl, sprinkle the vinegar and Calvados if using onto the apples and toss the apples. Add the sugar mixture to the apples and stir the apples until they are evenly coated. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of flour over the apple mixture and stir to distribute. Remove one disk of dough from the refrigerator.

Roll from the center of the dough like spokes on a wheel, healing any tears on the edges as you go. Drape the dough over the pin, move it to the pie pan and ease it into the dish Pile the apples into the pie pan in which you have laid the bottom crust. Take a shallow soup bowl and invert it on top of the apple pile. You can also do this with your hands. Add yet another pile of apples. I made my pies with the apples I could get here. I was quite proud to report the exceptional selection to which I had access. I figured that if I kept saying no, with the best of intentions to not further inconvenience him, he would stop offering, so I said yes.

Two large boxes packed full of heirloom apples arrived on my doorstep. In each box were a number of crumpled and labeled paper bags.

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In each bag were 2 of each of a number of heirloom apples. I felt like I needed to call and apologize, because I truly had not understood the variety and the beauty of all of these heirloom apples. Somehow, I thought they would be small and soft, yet several were some of the largest apples I have ever seen. I was so very excited to get to baking. Then, I had an epic crust failure. My leaf lard, acquired locally, just sort of died.

My last pie had been problematic, crust-wise, and the one I prepared for these special apples fell apart. It was liquid at room temperature and made for a sloppy mess of a crust. Knowing that I was working with a limited asset, I had decided to roll out my crust before cutting up any apples, but this too was a disaster.

I stopped and reassessed. During this process I found out that Jon had been talked into coming to Galveston for the Foodways Texas conference. I had wanted badly to go but found any number of excuses not to do so, but his going made it too fun to pass up. However, Jon immediately started suggesting that I needed to bring a pie made from the apples he had just sent. I related my lard problem to him and he set about trying to figure out how to fix it. He could FedEx some to me.

But I was stumped. To which Jon replied, well you could just render your own. He might as well have said I could just whittle up a functional space shuttle for what I know about rendering lard.

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I actually felt the apples degrading in my refrigerator. He had taken the time several weeks before to talk to me about sourcing gulf oysters. There is no way to explain how I feel about these two gentlemen who were prepared to move mountains to make sure I baked a good pie.

I remember several months ago when I did a post about Chocolate Pie with a Leaf Lard Crust, my mother telling me about how she vividly recalled her daddy rendering lard at their home when she was a small child. My memories of my grandfather cooking are a great motivation and joy to me. So, I got on the internet and found several articles about rendering lard and, lo and behold, there is nothing to it. I went to a nearby grocery store, talked to the man behind the meat counter, and came home with five pounds of pig fat. And I spent the next several hours slowly and carefully rendering it and pouring it off in successively darkening batches.

I was left with a dry pot full of chicharron. And, it was fun. I set about making my first pie…and I was euphoric. The colors were fantastic. Each apple I cut into was totally unique.

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The colors, the textures, the flavors. The first apple I cored came out pink. I probably could have figured it out before, as it was named Hidden Rose. Have you heard of any of those? I tasted every one I cut and each had a completely unique personality. Lily ran in every time I cut a new one and grabbed a chunk for herself and ran one out to her father in his work room.

To me, the pie was perfect. It was so many things. You must know I am a bit sentimental by now. Getting this pie right meant something to me. And there it was on my counter, looking like it should have been sitting in the pie cooler of the blue ribbon winner of the county fair. Using heirloom apples for the first time was a lovely experience. Even baked, the apples retained a depth of flavor that I did not find in their retail counterparts. Each bite of the pie was different from the one before, and with each bite I imagined the beautiful raw apple pieces in which Lily had so delighted.

The Best Apple Pie From All 50 States

They kept more flavor in the process of baking, they transmitted more of the depth of those flavors in the pie. Working with them, eating them, and baking them was an experience I want to have again, and often. Now, I just had to pull off another perfect one to take with me to Galveston. These were chefs, scholars, writers, media folks, and food lovers of the highest order.

Jim had mentioned that his wife, Diane, was an expert with pastry. I thought that, at the outside, this would be my pie audience. But, getting the pie to Galveston was more than half the battle. That means countless opportunities to drop it or trip. I had gone to the restaurant supply store to look for something in which to transport this beast of a pie. So I bought a clear plastic salad bowl that came with a lid. I used double stick tape to attach the pie plate to the underside of the lid and I covered it with the bowl like a dome. It was actually a brilliant solution.

There was perfect clearance for the fragile edges of the pie. But it was, inadvertently, a clear display case. It looked like I was transporting the crown jewels. The pie itself, even if it had tasted awful, was magnificent looking. Jon was right, even in mere appearance, it is the Quintessential American Apple Pie. As I approached security with fear and trepidation, I looked up and saw nothing but a sea of smiles.

You brought pie for the screeners; we love it when people do that.

I had a lovely conversation with a woman in front of me about lard and Crisco and daughters. She was going to see hers; I was flying away from mine on a rare solo outing. Because the TSA specifically allows pie travel now, and because of the plastic clear case, I was able to set my pie right in a bin and run it through the x-ray machine.

I made it to Galveston. And when I pulled up at the Galvez, I was more than ready to transfer custody of the pie to Jon.

More American than apple pie: The 5 most American dishes

It was officially his pie upon entry into the hotel. I immediately called Jon. He met me in the lobby and for the first time I got to meet my phone tutor and apple mentor. Jon is kind of like my brother Will. It is not so much that he is a quiet man but that he actually thinks before he speaks. My mother used to say that if there were a lifetime limit on words to use I would have run out by age 5.

I was very happy to finally meet him in person. But, Jon had no intention of running off and eating pie in his room, as I had kind of hoped he would. I was still exceedingly nervous about public tastings. What if it was undercooked? Had I used totally inferior cinnamon?

What if the lard made the pie taste like ham? He set it on one of the coffee tables in the lobby of this busy hotel and got on the phone to call Jim Gossen, who showed up with his wife and Penny de los Santos , a photographer whose work I admire a great deal. And that was only the beginning of the parade of people that we told about our pie and its journey.

And, it sat there gleaming, illustrating our comments, continuing to make people smile. And then the pie started performing its magic. It was such a big pie. I met more nice people around that pie. Photographer Jody Horton had a piece. And Robb Walsh and his wife Kelly even managed to snag the one remaining piece the next day. It was a little pie social.

Pie is imbued with an old style of homey grace. It was a lovely evening. Given the length of this post, you might be surprised at how little I talk and how uncomfortable I am in new situations with people I do not know…especially the caliber of people I was bumping into left and right in Galveston. The pie was a sweet way to say hello.

I think pie had been a little bit sad for Jon for a while, mixed up as it was still in the final chapters of a marriage. It was everything that a pie is supposed to be. It inspired friendly conversation. It brought a little moment of community. Photos by Jim Gossen]. Am I making too much of a humble and simple dessert?

But this recipe has a life. This particular pie had a journey. I learned a great deal through it and I am using it to create more. I made a great friend over it. I met many new and really wonderful people sitting around it. Am I overstating this? Food is one of the only constant common threads in our lives. It brings us together. You still remember smells from childhood, do you not? Did your father, who worked long hard days, actually sit for a while and smile at the dinner table?

Was your mother rewarded with praise and love for her work in the kitchen, or was her work expected and ignored. Did you teach your sons, as well as your daughters to cook? Did your grandparents grow tomatoes? Do you eat dinner with your children now? Do you eat alone at a desk, enjoying the solitude and the quality of flavors in the absence of the constant sensory overload of family? Pie, sweet or savory, good or great, is a symbol of Americana and of our food heritage. It is general to our culture and it is specific, in its presence or absence, in our own lives.

It is about food, love, family, and memories. This, my friends, is The Meaning of Pie. Kelly — This is a beautiful story, one that I first heard from Jon at breakfast in Seattle. Seeing that beautiful, familiar looking pie and your shy but triumphant smile in the lobby of the Galvez Hotel in Galveston was very gratifying to me.

Blue Ribben all the way. That was quite a project. I had so much fun working with you on this pie. Learn to make pie on the phone? Nothing to do it, yes? Love it that you got Thomas Jefferson, early American apple man, into your story. Lets bring back those wonderful apples he grew at Monticello and put them in pies. Kelly, this blog almost makes me weep for the old apple tree we had on the property where I grew up.

It is still in the family. I did not appreciate the old apple tree, but I know its fruit would work perfectly in your pie. Kelly — What a fantastic story! I swear you should be writing a cookbook, or for magazines and newspapers. This made me tear up, and also crave apple pie something awful!