A Family Recipe

Pie is a big deal in my house. For the last several years my mother and I have gathered during the holidays to crank out the recipes that were perfected by my grandmother before us. She had this magic touch when it came to pie crusts. Naturally, they were made from scratch and were never too thick or thin. It was perfection, flaky warm perfection. I spent my childhood baking with my grandmother but I never went near something as important as the holiday pies, or at least I didn’t until after she passed away.

Now the responsibility falls to my mother and me, and to put it simply we definitely don’t have the magic touch. Instead, we curse and hold our breath as we try and roll out the recipe that seemed to be so easy for grandma Helen. Over the years my skills have improved, and this was the first holiday season that I actually attempted pie making on my own. It didn’t go so well. My apple pie for Thanksgiving looked as if I dropped in the street, and the top layer was made from a gluten free flour that I learned is not the same as regular flour.

Over Christmas I made my mom roll out the crust for me because I was too traumatized from Thanksgiving to deal with the transfer of crust to dish. This video below is from last Christmas and has the recipes for the crust and two pies we usually make. They don’t taste as good as when grandmom made them, but so far I’ve heard no complaints.