Party Pie Comparison - Double Crust Apple

Hubby and I were invited to a pot-luck pre-thanksgiving party at a friend's house. About 30 of the hosts friends were going to be there. Hubby brought smoked salmon, and I brought a pie. I decided to tackle my first double crust pie. I also decided after all the streusel toppings, I wanted to do a more simple pie that would let the apple taste shine. I used a slightly tampered with recipe from my trusty Farm Journal's Complete Pie Book for Old-Fashioned Apple Pie.

• 3/4 c sugar
• 2 T flour
• 3/4 t cinnamon
• 1/8 t nutmeg
• 1/4 t salt
• 6 c apples (about 5 or 6)

Combine sugar, flour cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Mix lightly and thoroughly with Apples. Heap in bottom crust. Dot with butter. Adjust top crust. Cut steam vents. Bake in hot oven 425 for 60 minutes.

I also have some organic non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening so I decided to try Gourmet's pie crust recipe, to try it out. (for a double crust)

• 2 1/2 c flour
• 1 1/2 sticks butter
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
• 1/2 t salt
• 9 T water

You make it like all other crust. Cut the fat into the salt and flour. Mix in the water a few T at a time.

I forgot to put the butter on the pie. So I had to remove the top crust and dot the butter on. And, it was a little crumbly anyhow. I also sprinkled the crust with cinammon sugar. It wasn't as pretty as I had hoped. But it smelled great.

So, we brought it to the party. And, boy was there a lot of pie competition. There was a peach - apple, a pumpkin, and a pecan. The pumpkin and pecan were store bought - I could tell. But I was worried about the peach-apple. It looked SOOO beautiful compared to mine, perfect actually.

But the truth was in the pudding - an old name for pies. The store boughts were from Whole Foods. The pecan was sickly sweet and soggy, not at all worth the calories. The pumkin was boring. The crusts were bland and store bought. And according to the Post Food section this Wednesday, Whole Foods makes the best of the store boughts.

Then I tried the peach-apple. I had actually asked the maked how he made his beatiful crust, half butter crisco and half regular. And, boy did it taste like it. The crust was beautiful, but it tasted yuck, just like crisco. Can't beat butter. And he used granny smith and canned peaches. It was pretty underwhelming.

What the Old-Fashioned Pie lacked in beauty, it made up for in taste. It was fantastic. You could taste the different apples as I had intended and the crust was crispy and delicate. Hubby was very upset to have to leave it behind. And, many others at the party commented on the great taste (even going for seconds).