Apple Pie or Dumplings from Grandma’s recipe box
This is likely quite old, as my grandmother has written “Spry” instead of “vegetable shortening” or “Crisco”. Spry was a brand of vegetable shortening that was popular from the 1930s - 1960s. I have struggled to interpret the recipe because it is not written in a particularly organized way and is very vague, written haphazardly on both sides. This, too, speaks of this scrap of paper being quite old. My grandmother was an excellent cook, and had an eye for order and organization and I suspect would have written this down differently later in life. Anyway, fruit pie is one of the few desserts I am fairly comfortable with, so in the instructions I will be drawing on my own experience making pies when there are gaps to fill.
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups flour
- ¾ cups Spry (vegetable shortening)
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup water
- Multiple possible fillings:
- 8 cored apples (Baldwin or Cortland variety specified) with optional raisins to stuff in the apples
- 1 cup brown or white sugar
- A few pieces of pineapple
- Cinnamon
- A squeeze of lemon
- A can of pie cherries
- 3 tblsp tapioca
Method
Mix the pie filling first so it can be available for filling the pie/dumplings when the dough is ready. If using another type of filling, make sure it is at no more than room temperature when filling the pie crust.
Clearly the idea was you can use whatever you wish for a filling, but there are suggestions for an apple pie type filling that I am riffing off of:
Peel and thinly slice the apples, and mix with ½ cup brown sugar and ½ cup white sugar. Add cinnamon to taste, and 2 ½ tblsp flour. Squeeze some lemon juice over the apple mix, and set aside.
The key to a good pie is to know the following simple facts: gluten makes pie crust tough, and gluten does not form from its components in the flour until water is added. So the general rule of thumb when making a pie dough is this: BEFORE ADDING WATER, YOU CAN MANHANDLE THE FLOUR. AFTER ADDING WATER, HANDLE THE FLOUR AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE.
As a result, it makes sense that you add the fat to the flour before adding the water, and you want that fat incorporated fairly thoroughly, so that you don’t have to do a lot of mixing after you add the water. Therefore:
Take half the vegetable shortening and blend it into the flour until you get a cornmeal-like consistency. You can do this in any number of ways: by slicing two table knives together against each other (cutting in), by using a pastry blending tool, mashing with a fork, or if your hands are not particularly warm (so you don’t melt the shortening) you can use your fingertips. Then, add in the rest of the shortening in the Same way until the flour and shortening mix balls up to the size of navy beans.
Add approximately half a cup of water to the flour/shortening until the dough “feels right”. I cannot stress this enough: do not over mix!!! Basically, if you can gather it up in a ball and it mostly stays together, call it good enough and roll it out. The instructions are for pie, but it was also meant to be used as a dumpling dough. For pie, roll out the bottom crust and press into a pie plate. Dampen with water if you are making this pareve, or cream if making this milchig. Pre-bake the lower crust for 35 minutes at 400° F. (This seems long to me but I’m just following what is written down on the scrap of paper.)
Fill the crust, dot with more vegetable shortening, and add the top of the pie crust. Slash vent holes in the upper crust and return to oven at 400° F.
