A few weeks ago, the approaching Fall inspired me to make cinnamon apple pie. Though I don’t like pie very much and I’ve never made it before, I thought it would be a great skill to have! So, I went to one of my favorite recipe sources and of course I came across an easy whole-food pie recipe. I gave it a shot, and WOW, pie is now one of my favorite desserts–specifically this recipe. Thanks, Lisa from Farmhouse On Boone!

Anyway, I want to share this recipe with you because it is surprisingly simple and also because the crust, which wasn’t crumbly like every other pie crust I’ve had, was sweet, soft, and bready…much like the dough of fresh cinnamon rolls. I will never go back to crumbly pie crust! I’ve pasted the recipe below. My additions are in italics and I also changed a couple other things, but the original recipe can be found here.

Homemade Apple Pie Recipe

Ingredients

• Apple Pie Filling
• 3/4 cup organic sugar
• 2 tablespoons einkorn (or regular all-purpose flour)
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• zest and juice from 1/2 a lemon
• 6 cups thinly sliced apples
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 
  
• Einkorn Pie Crust
• 2 1/2 cups Einkorn All Purpose Flour (or regular all-purpose flour)
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 3/4 cup frozen Unsalted Butter (or lard or tallow)
• 6-7 tablespoons Ice Water

Instructions

• Make The Einkorn Pie Crust
• Stir flour and salt together.
• Grate frozen butter (or lard or tallow).
• Cut butter (or lard or tallow) into flour and salt and add ice water until dough comes together. I use a standing mixer for this.
• Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and pack it into a ball.
• Cut the dough in half and flatten it into two discs (one larger for the bottom crust and smaller for the lattice).
• Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.
• 
  
• Put The Apple Pie Filling Together
• Mix together the sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon zest, lemon juice and apples in a medium bowl.
• Put It All Together
• Roll the dough out to ~12 inches in diameter, transfer the dough to the 9″ glass pie dish, gently fit it in, trim any excess dough.
• Add apple mixture to the bottom crust and dot with butter.
• Roll remaining half of pie crust dough to ~12 inches in diameter and place it on top of the apple filling. Trim around the outside edges
• Roll bottom crust over top crust and flute the edges with your fingers.
• Brush lightly with milk; sprinkle lightly with additional sugar.
• Bake for 30-35 minutes at 425.

© 2023 Copyright Bartlett Farms

Now that I’ve shared Lisa’s recipe from her blog at Farmhouse On Boone, I’d like to mention that you may use either lard, tallow, or a butter/lard/tallow combination for making the pie crust. If you’re new to using traditional animal fats in baked goods, combining butter and tallow/lard can be a great first step. Though I much prefer tallow or butter, I know that many traditional foodies like myself love to use lard, which used to be the go-to fat for pie-making. Not only is lard/tallow great for making pies, but these special fats are actually great for making homemade lotions, lip balms, and even candles…all of which are in high demand this time of year! Tallow is known for its CLA content and lard is known for its vitamin D content.

I hope you enjoy this phenomenal pie recipe if you’re able to give it a try. I need to make my family some more and I haven’t been able to get it off my mind. Happy Autumn!