“When we think of classic American desserts, we tend to imagine apple pie and ice cream. However, the most classic American dessert of all might be the chocolate chip cookie.” ~ Homaro Cantu
I am going to have to agree with Mr. Cantu here. Not that I don’t like apple pie, but I love chocolate chip cookies. Plus, when it comes to apple pie, I’m picky. I don’t like those really thin slices of apples in some pies; I don’t like when there’s a crumble on top or too much cinnamon; oh, and my apple pie needs a top.
Also, my pies in general need a top and a bottom. But alas, that will be a subject for another blog post. (Note: this especially goes for savory pies – tops and bottoms, people! Tops and bottoms. Thank you very much.)
Why bring up tops and bottoms of pies? Because this next recipe, which is a pie recipe, has no top. There’s no top of the pie. No crust on top.
Boo.
“If you ain’t first, you’re last.” ~Ricky Bobby
Saving the Not-My-Best for Last…
I feel ya’, Ricky Bobby. I feel ya’. I saved the not-my-best recipes for last – or almost last.
Why did I save this particular recipe for almost last? Just because it’s a pie that doesn’t have a top? Pretty much. I wouldn’t have made it all but again, I said I’d make all 40 recipes in this Cook the 40 Challenge I gave myself, and so here is one of the recipes that I kind of saved for the latter part of the year, because I wasn’t looking forward to making it or eating it.
Cook the 40
So, why take on Food & Wine’s best-ever recipes from their forty years in publication? Well, they are Food & Wine, so they must know what they’re doing, right?
You’d think anyway. Seriously, I know they know what they’re doing, even if I don’t always like it, or what they’re doing isn’t to my specific taste.
40 Years of Food & Wine
According to the September 2018 anniversary issue of Food & Wine, and editor Hunter Lewis, https://twitter.com/notesfromacook?lang=en, what makes a good recipe is it being delicious, of course, and (I think even more important sometimes) the best recipes “tell a story worth repeating.” Well said, Hunter.
I am not sure what kind of stories all of these 40 best-ever recipes will tell from my kitchen’s point of view, but I do need to find out. Even if the point of view is topless…
Recipe Twenty-Nine: Deep-Dish All-American Cinnamon Apple Pie
Okay, enough of my whining about pie. Let’s make this thing.
First, I had to make the crust. 
Butter, flour, salt and cold water.
Dough is made, and ready to be refrigerated overnight.
Let’s prep! 
Pre-baked the crust and then brushed on apricot preserves. 
The apple slices are ready. 
Tossed the spices in with the apple slices.
They soaked up all the spices and were ready to create some juice.
Cooked up the juice from the apples. 
The reduced liquid.
Placed the apples in the crust before pouring the liquid on them.
Per the instructions, it was ready to go into the oven.
Out of the oven and then ready to be brushed with apricot preserves.
Cooled for a bit and it was ready to eat. If you like this sort of pie, that is.
If You Like That Sort of Thing…
And I didn’t, so there. But I did make it and it did smell like apple pie, and if you don’t care about tops or as much crust as possible, or too much cinnamon, you’ll love this recipe. Even if I didn’t.
1987. Not Really an All-American Year for Me
1987 really was not an All-American year for me, although it did make me stronger, wiser and much more ready to take on the next several years as an adult.
Actually, perhaps it was an All-American year after all.
Taken in late August 1987 before we started our senior year. I was class Spirit Leader all four years of high school, and won “Most Spirited” at both my junior and senior proms.
Showing some of that Indian spirit with Stephanie, one of my best friends in high school.
Standing on a chair or maybe the table (in the red dress) at a pizza joint after our Homecoming game in 1987. We lost the game, but that never dulled our spirit. Go Indians!
What Was I Doing in 1987? What Did I Eat? Where Did I Go?
When this recipe was being published in 1987, I certainly wasn’t aware of it. I turned seventeen in 1987, and well, let me just say it again in a different way – it wasn’t a great year.
I lived in San Antonio, and didn’t go many places, other than to work in Georgetown, Texas (where my parents had moved) that summer to earn money for what would be my senior year of high school, a bit on my own. Or at least no longer living at home with my parents. I did have help from others in 1987, especially from my grandmother, but it wasn’t my favorite year.
My school ID my senior year. Those punched holes meant I got free breakfast and free lunch. The Harlandale cafeteria ladies always took good care of me. I never went hungry and always felt loved and cared for. Not just by them, but by my entire Harlandale family. Maybe that, and my story of 1987 in general, will be a subject for a future blog post…
That being said, I did learn many lessons. One important lesson was that the people who loved me or cared about me most, took care of me and made sure I was well-fed. Food has always been important and even though 1987 was a tough year for me as a very poor teenager, I never went hungry or without a top on a slice of pie.
Seriously. It’s that important. 😉
Odie XO
(Odie was my high school nickname, and most definitely what I was called by most people I knew in 1987. Most of them still call me Odie today, too.)
For more information about this recipe, click below to be taken to the Food & Wine link: https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/deep-dish-all-american-cinnamon-apple-pie
