Grandma Alice's Blue Ribbon Apple Pie
by Kelsey Merritt
Alice. Weyerbacher family archives.
Serves: 10
temp: 350˚F
prep: 30 minutes
bake: 50-60 minutes
Today, when I lifted the pie crust to be draped over the top of the apples and sugar and cinnamon, I realized I was moving in the kitchen with the same effortlessness I watched my grandmother use. She drifted from countertop to countertop, mixing ingredients, shutting cupboards, and deftly lifting wax paper to lay crust atop a pie that already smelled like heaven. I used to be so jealous when I watched her, wondering how she knew so much and how she could just plop a crust on a pie plate without fumbling. Every time I roll a pie crust, I think of her giggle, and imagine her commenting at my shoulder that it isn’t quite thin enough.
My Grandma Alice was an incredible cook and seamstress, though in the time I knew her, her health was continually failing. When I was in junior high, my grandmother invited my younger sister and me over to learn how to make her “Blue Ribbon” pie crust. She giggled as we struggled to roll it thin enough, as she slipped newspaper under the wax paper, asking if it was thin enough for us to read the newspaper print yet. Despite her age and poor health, she maneuvered pie crust around the kitchen with speed and a gracefulness I had never seen her exhibit.
Alice Weyerbacher was the third of nine children. Raised during the Great Depression, she was frugal to the bone and grew up to be hard as nails. She quit school in the 8th grade at Kinsey Elementary School in Southeastern Montana, moving from the classroom as a student to the kitchen as the cook so she could help put her siblings through school.
Before she died, I visited my Grandma Alice with a notebook, eager to fill out any information I could glean from her about her life. Sitting at her kitchen table, she laughed at me, getting up to walk three steps to her garage and smoke a cigarette. Opening the door, she said, “One day, when you write those books of yours, you can write about how your grandma was the stubbornest damn woman that ever lived. But, you’ve got to be stubborn to live this long.”
During the upcoming holiday season, I hope this pie reminds you of your own heritage and instills a sense of powerful stubbornness in your bones.
Ingredients
For crust
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
2/3 cups crisco
5-6 Tbsp. ice cold water
For the filling
5-6 Granny Smith apples
1 cup sugar
½ tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. nutmeg
1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. butter
Rachelle, Kelsey, and Grandma Alice. Weyerbacher family archives.
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350˚F.
2. In a medium bowl, prepare pie crust by mixing flour, salt, sugar, and Crisco with pastry cutter or fork until small balls appear in the dough.
3. Add ice-cold water to dough, cutting into dough until just mixed. Avoid over-working.
4. Split dough in half, forming a ball with half the dough and place on a 12” square of wax paper. Cover with another 12” square of wax paper and use a rolling pin to roll towards the edges of the square.
5. Slowly remove the wax paper from the top of the 12” dough circle, then lightly replace before flipping crust over to remove the bottom piece of wax paper. Leave this piece of wax paper off, sliding hands under the wax paper bottom to flip over pie pan. Remove wax paper from the top of the crust. Slowly lift the edges of the dough to settle into the edges of the pie pan.
6. Peel, core, and chop apple. Place inside the bottom crust. Apples should be heaped in the middle, as they will settle and fall during the baking process.
Note: If you cannot immediately follow the recipe, place the apple slices in water with several tablespoons of lemon juice to keep from browning. Drain and pat dry before placing in the crust.
7. In a separate bowl, mix sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and flour together. Pour over the top of the apples in the pie crust.
8. Thinly slice the 1 Tbsp. of butter in shaved pieces, and place on top of the apple mixture, distributing evenly over the surface.
9. Roll out the top crust, repeating directions 4 and 5 with remaining dough.
10. Cover apple mixture with top crust, ensuring to cut design or simple slits in the middle for an air vent during cooking.
11. Pinch the bottom and top crust together along edges, moving crust as needed to ensure an even crust (or else larger sections will brown faster!)
12. Bake at 350ºF for 50-60 minutes, until crust is golden brown.
13. Remove from oven, allow to cool, and serve warm for best results. Enjoy!
Alice. Weyerbacher family archives.
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