Early last week Justin requested we make an apple pie. I didn’t immediately jump for joy over this request (see this post), but had wanted to go to a local orchard anyway and figured this was the right reason. We stopped by one afternoon and choose some Wolf River apples. Neither of us had ever heard of them, but the owner said they were good for baking, and as that was our purpose, we picked out a large basket.
After further research, it turns out we happened upon a winner! Wolf River apples originated in Wisconsin in the 1800′s and have been acknowledged as a great sweet apple for baking, making into sauce, and eating out of hand.
Justin set to work making the pie last Saturday evening, sticking with the Pat-a-Pan pie crust and Mom’s Plain Apple Pie recipes from The Amish Cook’s Baking Book. As I’ve never really been a fan of apple pie, I can’t say I was overly excited for what the result might be. I offered advice where needed, helped slice apples, and helped clean up.
Well, mostly helped clean up. 
Things started looking up when he added extra brown sugar to the apples, and patted the crumb topping into place. And it did smell pretty incredible baking. And to top it off (literally), Justin mixed together some Honey Cinnamon Gelato.
I shouldn’t have doubted. Justin has a special pie gift. The crust was just as good when I had made the Peanut Butter Pie, better even, not dried out at all, and a wonderful flaky texture. The Wolf River apples baked to the perfect, tender consistency – not quite mush, but not crunchy in the least. The pie was sweet and the crumbly topping was delicious. The Honey Cinnamon Gelato was the perfect compliment.
The pie was such a success, that Justin made another one yesterday, this one with the Basic roll-out crust from the same book. Goodness Gracious. It is amazing. Impossibly flaky! The crumb topping baked to a perfectly perfect dark golden brown. It’s officially official. I love pie. Most especially the ones my husband makes.
