Fried Apple Pies

 From: Southern Living 1988 cookbook

Ingredients:

1 8-oz package dried apples or 3 cooking apples

1 cup water

1/3 cup sugar

1 Tbsp butter

1 10-oz can flaky biscuits

Vegetable oil

Combine apples and water in a saucepan; bring to boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes or  until tender. Cool. Mash slightly, if necessary. Stir in sugar and butter; set mixture aside.

Because I used cooking apples, I peeled and diced them, then boiled them in a small amount of water for about 10 minutes, then added the sugar and butter.

Roll each biscuit into a 5-inch circle on a lightly floured surface. Place about two tablespoons of apple mixture on half of each biscuit circle. To seal pies, dip fingers in water and moisten edges of circle; fold in half, making sure edges are even. Using a fork dipped in flour, press edges firmly together.

Pour oil to depth of 1/2 inch into a heavy skillet. Fry pies in hot oil over medium-high heat on both sides until golden, turning once. Drain well on paper towels.

Verdict:

HUGE thumbs up! Wow... so easy to make and these tasted absolutely incredible! We dusted them with sugar as they were coming out the oil as well. We devoured these. I will definitely make these again for a simple breakfast or dessert item!

Ugly Pie

This recipe is from the book "Ugly Pie" by Lisa Wheeler. We got this book from the library and the kids loved it... but they REALLY loved the idea that we could make our own real ugly pie!

Ingredients:

Ugly Crust:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup lard (or shortening)
1/2 tsp salt
6-8 Tbsp icy cold water

Ugly Filling:
6 cups peeled, sliced Granny Smith apples
1/4 cup molasses
1 tsp lemon juice
5 Tbsp flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup red raisins (or Craisins)
1/4 walnuts - chopped fine

For the crust...
First, mix together the flour and salt. Then, using a fork, cut little chunks of that ugly lard into your flour until you get what looks like itty-bitty pea-sized balls. Set aside half this mixture in another bowl for later. Next, sprinkle 1 tablespoon of icy cold water over those pea-sized balls. Gently toss it with a fork. Repeat until your flour mixture forms an ugly ball of dough.

Spread a little bit of flour out on a flat surface (like your kitchen counter). Pat that ball of ugly dough down like you mean business. Then roll it with a rolling pin until it becomes a flat, ugly crust. It doesn't matter if it looks nice and round and pretty. This is Ugly Pie! Place in 9" deep-dish pie plate.

In a large bowl, toss apple slices with lemon juice. Then mix in molasses until apples are completely coated with ugly brown good. Set aside.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the dry ingredients (flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, white sugar and brown sugar). Add to the ugly apple mixture until everything is nice and moist.

Toss raisins and walnuts into apple mixture. Make sure all ingredients are well coated. Place into pie crust. Your pie should look fairly ugly by now.

Take the crumbly flour mixture you set aside earlier. Sprinkle over the top of the pie. Cover pie with an aluminum foil tent to prevent overbrowning. Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 20 minutes.

When your pie is done, you will have the most delicious, most beautiful ugly pie you ever saw.

Verdict:
Thumbs up! I loved the idea of making something with the kids that we had just read about. And it really is a delicious pie!