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Sally Cevasco’s Famous Apple Crumb Pie

First Published in the King Arthur Flour’s Catalogue in 1993 see original below with photo of Sally and her daughter Jenna

Crust

1 Cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

¼ tsp. salt

½ cup solid vegetable shortening

1 – 3 TBS. ice water  (depending on how much you need to get it to stick together)

Preheat oven to 350º F

Put the flour and salt in a bowl big enough to work in half the shortening with your pastry blender. Put the remaining shortening in and blend ‘til it looks mixed, but lumpy. It’s OK to handle and mix at this point, but once you start to add the ice water, overhandling will make the curst tough, so try to keep handling to a minimum. The water should be ice cold and added gradually, mixing a little with a spoon after each addition.

When dough starts to hold together a bit you can grab hold of it with your hand sand form it into a ball. Be sure to use plenty of flour on your hands and on the wooden board, where you’ll roll it out. If it’s really sticky then you’ve added too much water so try to knead a little more flour into it, folding it in on the board. Remember don’t succumb to the dreaded Pie Crust Paranoia (you can do it!) Usually the harder the dough is to handle, the flakier the crust, so its’ worth it to be patient.

Transfer the dough to a floured board. Roll the dough as thinly and evenly as possible. Don’t worry about any imperfections when the crust is rolled out, because after you transfer it to the pan, any problems can be easily patched.

Filling

8 Cups peeled, cored and sliced apples*

¾ Cup granulated sugar

¼ Cup King Arthur Flour

up to 1 teaspoon cinnamon (to taste)

up to ¼ teaspoon nutmeg (to taste, I usually leave this out. Just a personal preference)

*Paula Reds are our first choice, then Cortlands our second; both are juicy and tart which makes for great baking apples. McIntosh are also acceptable.

Now for the fun part! For this we use our apple peeler/corer/slicer from the catalogue. It makes dealing with the apples so much fun that th e people in our house argue about whose turn it is to peel the apples. Really!

Once the apples are processed they can be mixed with the other ingredients. If the apples aren’t very juicy, you may want to cut back on the amount of flour a little. We like to use about ½ teaspoon of cinnamon and no nutmeg.

Topping

1 Cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

½ Cup brown sugar

½ Cup (1 stick) firm butter

The topping always seems to need the human touch to get the proper consistency. So, I cut the butter up with a knife a bit then mix it with my hands until everything is mixed together but still a little lumpy. Spread this mixture evenly over the top fo the apples.

Bake pie in a preheated 350° oven for about an hour. You may want to put a cookie sheet under it to catch any drips and prevent burning on the bottom of the oven. Check at about 50 mins. It is done when the apple filling is bubbling and the topping is a golden brown.  YUMMY

Sally Cevasco's Famous Apple Crumb Pie

Well, yesterday was jam packed with adventure!

My daughter Jenna (professional photographer) Jennathompsonphotography and her sweetie Mark were going to take a train into Boston but when I dropped them at the station at 7am I said goodbye, kissed and hugged them, snapped a picture and told her to call me immediately if there was a problem with the train so I could come back and drive them into Boston to catch their flight to Bermuda via Newark, NJ  (The trip was a birthday gift from her Mark).

Within minutes of driving away my phone rang, their train was an hour and a half late!  So, I swung back around and picked them up. Now we were heading to Boston from Providence during rush hour, not good. The one hour ride turned into 2 hours and it was very intense because we were cutting it way too close for comfort. The clock was ticking and we were just sitting in bumper to bumper traffic because the highway turned into a parking lot.

Then I asked the question: “What airline are you on?”  Answer: “Continental”
Me:  “OH SH___T!”

If you aren’t aware, they are the worst with their strict rules about checking in 45 minutes prior to departure. Some flights do not allow you to check-in online to get your boarding pass and their trip was one of them. If you walk up to the counter and it is 44 minutes prior to departure they will NOT give you your boarding pass even if there is no security line and you absolutely could make it to the gate. Ask me how I know this one.  My friend Mimi and her husband had it happen to them and they were there in plenty of time but were in line to get to the ticket counter and Continental said “sorry.”

The race was on. Jenna asked Mark to put the back seat down and get the larger bag so they could repack everything and not have to check luggage as this would be their only chance to make it if they were that tight on time. He did that and she left all of her toiletries in my car and they left the larger suitcase in the car so they could just have carry-on bags.

Mark called the airline and confirmed that the absolutely drop dead time they could get there and get checked in was 9 am. He also confirmed that there were no more flights for the rest of the day. We came screaming up to the curb at 8:55 am!!!!

I blew them a kiss and yelled “good luck” to their backs as they started running. (If you have seen the movie Forest Gump, this is what I call the “Run Forest Run” routine)

I drove away and within 15 minutes Jenna called to say they made it through security already and they were good.

Phew!  That was a close one.

Now I was facing a 6 hr. car ride to get home after driving 2 hrs. to get them there. So, I head out feeling relieved that they made it.

When you are praying and begging for something to work out, it’s best to have the end result in mind and not just one piece like getting to the airport on time. Ask me how I know that.

Their flight was supposed to depart at 9:50 so when the phone started ringing at 10 I knew something was wrong. Sure enough, their flight was so delayed (not due to weather but due to an airline/plane issue) that they were going to miss their connection in Newark so Continental put them on another airline (American). They were to go from Boston to Laguardia then be shuttled to Kennedy. Once they got to Kennedy she called me and said they were going to have to wait 5 hrs. for their flight to Bermuda.

Well, after four hours my phone rang again. Now the poor thing is just in tears. They canceled their flight due to weather issues in Bermuda!!   There are no flights at all until 6 am the next day (this morning) The airline refused to put them up in a hotel because it was weather related. Mark called Continental and spent an hour and a half on the phone arguing with them to get them to help. Their response was: “once we transfer you to another airline you are no longer our responsibility.”
Even though if their first flight with them was on time they would have had no issues at all and would have already been in Bermuda.

Continental finally agreed to switch their return flight out to the next day and the resort agreed to let them stay an extra night in exchange for the one they lost.

Morale of the story:  NEVER book anything with Continental unless there are no other options!

I spoke with her at 4:30 am this morning and they were at the airport and she emailed me at 5:45 saying they were on the plane. I received an email saying they were there!
I don’t know if I mentioned it but because my name Sally Cevasco rhymes with it, my friends used to refer to me as “Sally Fiasco” because there are so many stories like this from my travels.  Some of my stories are actually good and fun too but I hope it’s not hereditary!  Poor Jenna.

I finally arrived home after being up since 4 and 8 hrs. of driving and no food all day. It’s good to be back.

Life is GOOD!

Here’s Jenna in the “Little Black Dress” she bought to surprise Mark on their vacation: