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Recipe: Award-Winning Apple Pie From Kim Johnson's Mother

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Many of you may have family recipes you make this time of year.

At the Johnsons, growing up, we always heard about my mom Peggy's award-winning apple pie.

When she was 13, she won the 4-H purple ribbon for her pie. And she's been baking it for us ever since. This year, she taught me the secret, which is all in how you roll the crust.

Recipe In Peggy's Words:

1 ½ cups of flour
½ Tsp. of salt
½ cup of shortening or ¼ cup of lard, ¼ cup of crisco
1 Tbsp. of butter
¼ cup of water

Blend shortening in with flour and salt, when small pea size balls form add water.

Mix the flour and the salt together, add the Crisco and Lard and use a pastry cutter to blend the Crisco and Lard together until the Crisco and Lard is the size of peas. Slowly add the water and use a fork to mix together, sometimes, you may need a little more water. Use your hands to form into a ball, keep forming the ball until all the ingredients are added into the ball. Divide the ball into two portions.

Use a pastry clothe and pastry cover for the rolling pin. Lightly flour the pastry clothe and form half of crust into a ball again, and flatten out into a round flat ball. Use the rolling pin and start rolling the crust from the middle out to the edge of the crust. By starting in the middle and rolling out to the edge, you will achieve a nice flaky crust. Very important to start in the middle. Keep rolling the curst out until the crust is about 1" wider than your pie pan.

Transfer the crust from the pastry clothe to the pin pan.

Apple Filling:

I use a variety of Pink Gala, Granny Smith and Honey Crisp apples all together. Usually 6-7 large apples are needed for the filling. Peel, core, and slice the apples and transfer apples to a large dish. Combine ¾ cup sugar and 1 tsp. cinnamon in a separate bowl and mix together. Lightly toss the cinnamon/sugar mix into the apples and then transfer apples into the pie pan.

Roll out top crust, once rolled to the desired size, fold crust in half and cut air vents into the crust. Transfer the crust to the pie and seal the edges. I cut excessive crust leaving about ½ inch overlapping the pie pan. Roll those two crusts together and pinch with your fingers the crust together to form a seal.

Bake at 425 for 10 minutes, then lower temp to 350 for another 45 minutes!

I like to service this with cinnamon or vanilla ice cream! Enjoy!

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