GARDEN OF EDEN APPLE PIE

This pie filling recipe is for a double crust pie.  Find a recipe for a good pie crust and then let the dough chill in the frig for about an hour.  I made a crust in the processor using 2 1/2 cups sifted all purpose flour, 3 TBS. sugar, 1/2 cup cold shortening and 1 1/2 sticks cold butter, a little salt and 6 TBS. of cold ice water. But I’ll post that recipe elsewhere!  You can use whatever double crust pie recipe you prefer.  Just take it out of the frig a few minutes before you plan to roll it out just to let it soften a bit.  As for the apples, I used a mix of tart Granny Smith and sweet Golden delicious fruit.  The recipe says 3/4 cup of sugar and I poured a generous measurement but not quite a full cup!  Before you put the pie in the oven, brush some milk over the top and sprinkle some sugar on the pie.  This pie was better the next night when I heated it up and served it with vanilla ice cream.  The filling is sweet with just the right amount of spice (reminiscent of the filling inside a fried McDonald’s apple pie, i.e., perfect!) Note the pretty green Le Creuset pie plate! The only tedious part of making this pie is peeling all those apples — just take your time — it’s a labor of love.

Biblical scholars continue to debate whether the “forbidden fruit” in the Garden of Eden was an apple.  It doesn’t really matter: the point of the story in Genesis seems to be that the first couple defied God’s orders and tasted the forbidden fruit of knowledge.  Of course, Eve seems to have been blamed for this misstep. I painted my version of the Garden of Eden on my garage door a few years ago.  I’m afraid that I probably would have succumbed to the same temptation Eve did.  I love apples.