Stayman/Winesap Apple Pie (5 stars)

25
Stayman/Winesap Apple Pie
12/18/11

Okay I cheated with this pie. We went to Pennsylvania for Nathan's graduation (MS in nuclear engineering from Penn State). The best part was spending time with Nate, Nicole, and Katie. We went to the Way Fruit Farm, which was established 1826. It's a great place, big wood barn full of good stuff, especially apples. The first thing you notice when you walk in is the smell of apples and there are apples all over. They have a huge variety of apples including Granny Smith, Cortland, Northern Spy, Ida Red, McIntosh, Jonagold, Honeycrsip, etc. We asked about cooking apples and chose Stayman/Winesap which I'd never heard of before. They turned out to be crisp but much sweeter than Granny Smith. The problem was that Nate and Nicole are in the process of moving to Chicago and the movers had already taken just about everything so we ended up cheating by using a ready made pie crust and Apple Pie Spice. The crust was pretty workable, probably because it used lard. The pie flavor was excellent but the bottom crust just didn't brown probably because we used a tinfoil pie tin which resulted in an undercooked crust. I'll keep my eye out for these apples but try to avoid using anything but a Pyrex pie plate and homemade crust.

Crust: Weigman's ready made crust

Filling:

7 Stayman/Winesap Apples
3/4 cup sugar
1-1/2 teaspoon Apple Pie Spice (Blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice)
3 Tablespoons Tapioca
2 Tablespoons Lemon juice
1 Tablespoon Lemon Zest

Peel, core, slice apples. Add lemon juice and zest and mix. Blend sugar, tapioca, Apple Pie Spice, then add to the apples. Pour into pie shell, cover with top crust, brush edge with egg-water mixture then seal. Brush top with egg-water mixture and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in pre-heated oven at 425 F for 20 minutes, rotate pie 180 degrees, then reduce heat to 350 and bake for 40 minutes or until filling is bubbling thickly. Cover with foil if it browns too quickly.