Review: The Heritage Pie Company: Award Winning Apple Pie?

I love apple pie. I even have my own favorite recipe for it right here on good ol' Chop Onions, Boil Water! That's the pie I prepare most often. It's made from wholesome ingredients, simple to prepare and damn delicious if I do say so myself! Recently though, Fed Ex delivered a large insulated box containing a fully-baked, frozen apple pie from The Heritage Pie Company in Jasper, Texas. Upon reading the enclosed card we discovered it was a gift from a couple of our friends in Auckland, New Zealand. 



Now, a mile high apple pie from Texas via New Zealand is a peculiarity in itself. It was surely not unwelcome, but it did make one think "PIE?". Plus when I read the description inside which noted that it was an award-winning pie, I must admit, I thought it might be a dubious claim. This is America, the land of endless dubious claims, so to say I was skeptical was an understatement. So I did a little research.



I found that The Heritage Pie Company writes that it recreates "down home, old fashioned, handmade pies from scratch", and that the apple pies are "Texas Sized " and "filled to the brim with 12-14 fresh, hand-peeled apples". Also, that each pie stands a whopping 7 inches tall and weighs in at 6 pounds. The Heritage Pie Company also claimed that their apple pies are culinary works of art and that they are hand-made from scratch. That's a lot of tall talk, but coming from Texas, you have to expect it. Their boots aren't tall for nothing you know!

Pressing family business prevented us from immediately trying the pie, but the company's literature assured us that we could freeze it with no ill effects, and that is what my wife did. Several days later, we invited my mother over for dinner and we thawed and prepared the pie as instructed in the accompanying literature from The Heritage Pie Company. It heated in the oven as we ate our main dish and entertained each other.



When we were ready for dessert my wife removed it from the oven and let it sit to cool a bit. She then carefully cut each of us a wedge and added a dollop of good vanilla ice cream to it. A plate of pie and ice cream was placed in front of each of my daughters (ages 5 and 2-1/2), my mother, myself and finally my wife. I must admit, it looked really, really inviting and promising. Flaky crust, a mountain of thinly-sliced apples, and the seeming, gooey goodness of the golden sauce blending with the cold ice cream. Yes, it looked damned good. A few moments went by for everyone to get seated and ready and we all tucked into it.



You know, I've tried a lot of visually promising foods in my life. Sometimes they're true to how they appear and other times they fall flat. Barbecue, pizza and especially desserts are prime examples. I've had some pretty awesome looking versions of each that while looking incredible, were utter disappointments when eaten. Also, there's something I read in an old "how-to" book a long time ago. When the author of that book wanted to make an impression and be sure you remembered what he was writing he wrote "What I write three times is law!" and then proceeded to write that truth three times. It's a habit I've picked up and used many times in my own writing and dammit, I'll use it now:



What I write three times is law!



The Apple Pie I had from The Heritage Pie Company was the best I have had in my life so far!

The Apple Pie I had from The Heritage Pie Company was the best I have had in my life so far!

The Apple Pie I had from The Heritage Pie Company was the best I have had in my life so far!



It was incredible and everyone at the table agreed. We were all "mmmmmmmm-mmmmmmmmm-ing" through each bite and my 2-1/2 year old at one point said "This is DE-EE-EE-EE-EE-LICIOUS!" striking the table with her hands on each "ee-ee-ee-ee-ee"! We all concurred it was the best apple pie any of us had ever had. Everything from the delicious flaky crust, the apples, etc., everything was excellent. The spice blend was perfect, even the cinnamon which is easy to overdo was pushed to the height of perfection! The Heritage Pie Company Apple Pie kicked ass!



I immediately jumped on Face Book and described the pie and offered a link to The Heritage Pie Company to my friends who may want to sample it. Thankfully, the informality of Face Book allowed me to use the proper expletives to drive the sincerity of my high praise home. Let's just say, my message was delivered.



I've had several slices of the pie since and its impact has not faded. It is a remarkably good apple pie and it really is the best I have had in my life thus far. If you love apple pie, the apple pie from The Heritage Pie Company is worth every penny. TRY IT!



Thank you Amber and Martin for your well-timed, generous and delicious gift!



The Heritage Pie Company

1616 F.M. 776
Jasper,TX 75951

1-877-816-1400 Toll Free

1-409-386-4081 Fax

http://www.heritagepies.com

E-mail: ThePieGuys@HeritagePies.com

Recipe: Yankee Apple Pie

Nothing is more American than baseball, hot dogs and apple pie right? Well sort of. The way I understand it, baseball was actually based on an older British game called rounders. Hot dogs also came from a foreign land-Germany. The Germans do more things with weiners and sausage than my sausage-craving-friend Andy could ever hope to try. Finally, apple pie, that most American self-identified food, alas, the Europeans were making it long before they came here and stole all the land from the natives.

Don't let this bum you out though. Things like this happen all over the world and all through history! Take Italy for instance. What kind of food comes to mind when you think of Italy? Pizza and pasta right? Well, pizza found its way to Italy via the flatbreads of the Moorish invaders. Pasta? That's all Chinese, kiddies! What is pasta without sauce right? Well tomatoes were unknown in Italy and Europe until the Europeans found their way to the New World! Central and South American Indians were making sauces from tomatoes thousands of years before an Italian even knew what pasta was! The same can be said for many cultures dishes, many find their origins in other places and cultures.

So lighten your hearts countrymen and countrywomen! Rounders is lame! It had to be turned into something better! Guess who did that? Americans! We made it so popular with our changes that it is widely played throughout the Americas, the Caribbean and Asia! Similarly the hot dog has transcended its Germanic origins due entirely to its popularity in the United States (I do believe we added the bun!). We do more things with hot dogs alone than some Asian cultures do with rice!

Finally, there's apple pie. Sure it had its beginning in Europe, but those old recipes pale in comparison to the kicked up and spiced up version that American colonial women created when they naturalized and immortalized that dish as one of the New World's premier dessert dishes.

In this day and age with the internet, overnight delivery and an ever-shrinking world, I have friends in South Korea who dream about trying fresh baked American apple pie! Really! If they ever visit, this is the recipe I will use to bake them their first apple pie. I'll serve it to them with big scoops of homemade vanilla ice cream as well! Then I'll pour a big glass of champagne for myself and ask them to pronounce things from a Portuguese restaurant menu.

There are a lot of opinions where apple pie is concerned. Some folks say a blend of tart and sweet apples works best, others will mumble about the amount of spices, etc. For the sake of originality and variation I say experiment. Starting out with Macintosh's or Cortlands doesn't hurt and I've upped and downed the various spices as well. Experiment future pie makers! Experiment!

Yankee Apple Pie

5 lbs of Macintosh or Cortland apples (peeled and sliced into wedges)
1-2/3 cup of sugar
6 TBS all-purpose flour
2-4 TBS brown sugar
3-4 tsp of ground cinnamon (use your own judgement here)
1/2 tsp of ground allspice
1/4 tsp salt
1 TBS of fresh lemon juice
1 large egg (beaten)
Either purchase or prepare enough dough for two pie crusts (tops and bottoms).

Preheat the oven to 450°F.

In a large pan over low heat, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, allspice, salt, and sugars.

When the spice and sugar combination is well combined, add the apple wedges and lemon juice (if using) to the spice mixture and toss to coat. Leave in the pan, tossing frequently until the sugars begin to liquify and glaze the apple wedges. BE CAREFUL NOT TO BURN.

Remove pie filling mixture from heat.

Carefully unfold or roll out the pie dough and place in the bottoms of two pie pans.

Fill each pie with pie mixture. Mixture should heap a little to the center of the pie.

Carefully cover each pie with another piece of dough sealing the seams with a little beaten egg. Press pie edges together firmly. Brush the exposed pie dough with beaten egg.

Cut 3 small vent holes in the top of each pie and place them in the oven at 450°F for about 20 minutes. Then lower the heat to 375°F and continue cooking until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Remove from oven and let cool.

Serve hot with vanilla ice cream.

Apple pie chop onions, boil water