99 New: Simple as Pie

You only need to know how to make one fine pie.

If you can make one fine pie, you will always be welcome, sort of like how everyone likes a guest who can tell a good joke or tap dance. You can’t not like a tap dancing person.

My one fine pie is the Apple Crumb Pie featured in my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. I’ve used this recipe for a very long time, so long that for a while I made it from memory and then once, having made it for my son-in-law, it seemed dry and doughy so I consulted the recipe to realize that over the years, I’d shorted the sugar and lowered the baking temperature. My signature dish became a mush rather than the glowing tribute to apples that I’d remembered, that had been my trademark.

So now I always open the old cookbook to the recipe. You can see I’ve used this cookbook and this particular page many, many times. The page is stained with butter and something red, I’m not sure, maybe the cherry pie recipe is near. Anyway, if you never make another pie, make this one. Use a nice tart, juicy apple and good butter, don’t skimp. And protect those edges, always protect your edges, always good advice.

If you follow this recipe, you will have a pie that looks like this. And you will marvel at the loveliness of the fruit and the smell of the cinnamon and your ability to make one fine pie. It’s a gift.