As American as Apple pie!.. Happy 4th of July!

I had made this pie last year during thanksgiving, but it never saw the light of day on this blog, Well, what better time than the 4th of July!
Thanks Ria Mary Matthew & Shauna Ahern for this fabulous opportunity to be a part of the 'Pie Party' event.

The term apple pie tends to elicit memories of the Cooks Source plagiarism brouhaha from last year & not very positive ones at that. The take home message of that incident is that, irrespective of the simplicity of any recipe that may be posted on the blogosphere & elsewhere, it seems just the right thing & way more simpler to give credit where due.
This is my very first foray into baking from scratch, I've tried making pies with puff pastry & graham cracker crusts, but one really does not get complete satisfaction knowing that there was a component in your dish that you've no clue about. & at the end of the day, while I made up a batch of pie dough I had to scrap the idea of complete first principles due to the fact that ... I do not own a pie tin (the situation has since been rectified!).

So I had to fall upon my back up a frozen pie crust that I picked up from the local supermarket, (one that specifically did not include lard as an ingredient), but to do justice to my initial plan, I did create the top crust from my home made dough & it passed the test. The recipe for the crust is from a book by Carole Walter, 'Great Pies & Tarts', a text book like encyclopedia of everything you need to know about baking perfect pies & tarts, both sweet & savory. I did take the liberty of substituting ghee for vegetable shortening (which I have a restraining order against!!).

For the crust you need:

2 1/2 cups All purpose flour
4 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

8 tbsp partially frozen unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
2 tbsp partially frozen ghee
6-8 tbsp Ice water

Sift the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl & transfer to a food processor. Add 1/2 the ghee & butter & toss to coat with the flour. Transfer to a food processor & pulse 4-5 times & then process for 5 seconds. The mixture starts resembling fine bread crumbs. Add the rest of the butter & shortening, & pulse again 5 times & repeat processing for 5 seconds. The mix now resembles coarse bread crumbs with some large pieces of fat.

Transfer this crumb mixture onto a large bowl. Adding the ice water 1 tablespoon at a time, to the sides of the bowl keep moving the flour to the center of the bowl using a fork or a small spatula. as you keep adding the water now teaspoon at a time, the mix gradually forms a ball of dough. Using floured hands divide the dough into two & press each ball into a flat disk. Cover with plastic wrap & let it rest for at least 30 minutes before rolling out.

Or 1 ready made 8 inch frozen Pie shell

For the Apple filling, you need: (modified from the recipe on the pie crust)

4 apples, cored, quartered & sliced thin (I used one each of the following: Granny smith, Golden delicious, Fuji & Macintosh)
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar,
1/4 tsp powdered cloves
1/2 tsp of powdered cinnamon
1/2 tbsp powdered ginger
Juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Combine the sliced apples, Lime juice, sugar & the spices & let the fruit mixture rest for about 1 hr.

Remove the apples from the liquid, & transfer the liquid to a saucepan. On medium heat, evaporate the liquid till it forms a thick syrup. In the mean time, add the cornflour to the apple slices & coat evenly. Transfer the apple slices into the frozen pie shell. (or you can roll out the pie dough & line a pie tin with it)

To the syrup thickening on the stove, add the 2 tbsp of butter & stir till the butter completely melts. Pour the syrup over the apple filling. Cut out shapes with the remaining pie dough & arrange over the apples as shown, or alternatively cut thin strips & weave it over the pie filling in the classic lattice style.