Apple pie — a double-crust pie filled with sliced apples, sugar, cinnamon, and butter — is the national dessert of the United States and the food most associated with American identity ("as American as apple pie"). The irony: apples are not native to America (they were brought by European colonists), the pie form is English, and the spicing is global. What is American is the combination's ubiquity, its symbolic weight, and its specific position on the Thanksgiving table alongside pumpkin pie. Apple pie's significance is cultural, not culinary: it represents home, tradition, and belonging.
A double-crust pie (flaky, butter-and-lard pastry) filled with sliced apples (a mix of tart and sweet: Granny Smith for tartness and structure, Honeycrisp or Fuji for sweetness, or classic Golden Delicious), tossed with sugar, cinnamon, a pinch of nutmeg, a squeeze of lemon juice, and a tablespoon of flour or cornstarch (to thicken the fruit's released juices). Dotted with butter. The top crust is placed over the filling, crimped to seal, vented with slits, and baked at 200°C for 20 minutes (to set the crust), then 175°C for 30-40 more minutes until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling through the vents.
1) The crust: cold butter (or butter-and-lard), cut into flour in pea-sized pieces, cold water, minimal handling. The fat pieces melt during baking and create flaky layers. This is the same technique as Appalachian biscuits (AM2-14). 2) Apple variety matters — all-sweet apples produce a flat-flavoured pie. The tart-sweet mix provides depth. 3) The apples should be sliced, not diced — 5mm thick, arranged (not dumped) in the pie shell. 4) Vent the top crust — the steam from the cooking fruit must escape or the crust becomes soggy. 5) Cool before cutting — the filling sets as it cools. A hot-from-the-oven slice collapses into a puddle.
Warm apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (pie à la mode) is the American dessert. The hot pie and the cold ice cream. A slice of sharp cheddar cheese alongside (the New England tradition — "apple pie without the cheese is like a kiss without the squeeze") is the variation that surprises people from outside the region.
James Beard — American Cookery; Dorie Greenspan — Baking with Dorie