Will's Apple Pie

You'll get faster at this with practice. I'd hold off pre-heating the oven the first few times to conserve fuel.

APPLES:

"We're here for apples, not sugar and spice."
(If you've got a freezer on board, this entire apple step can be done in bulk and frozen in plastic bags, one bag per pie, before you sail.)

Cut 10-12 good size apples into thin slices--half the thickness of a  traditional apple slicing tool--about 20 slices per apple.

Using the handles of two wooden spoons, mix the apples in a large bowl with a cup or so of brown sugar--enough to lightly coat the apples. (When mixing anything, a deep sink is the sailor's best friend.)

Add very moderate amounts of allspice; cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and  nutmeg. Ideally, you won't taste any individual spice more than the apples, so go easy on the spices, particularly the ginger and the cloves.

Let the apples sit. Juice will come out while you make your crust.

CRUST:

"Pie crust likes an icy touch."

Sift two cups of flour–even if it's pre-sifted–and a pinch of salt.

Cut in about a half stick of softened butter. Not a lot of butter. We're here for apples, not butter.

"Cutting in" is done with two dinner knives. (Keep your warm mitts off the stuff as much as possible.) Drop a slice of butter in the flour and scissor it repeatedly between the two blades. When it disappears, forming little flecks of butter and flour, drop in another pat and repeat until you're out of butter. At this point the flour should look like meal–a mix of fine chunks–and you should be able to form it into a ball that more or less holds its shape. Add a little more butter if you have to. Then cut in about 3 to 5 tablespoons of cold water to make it hold its shape even more. Make a ball out of half the flour and butter mix. Stash the second half in the cooler. (In tropic conditions, you might want to mix the crust first and let it cool while you do the apples.)

Sprinkle flour on a couple of sheets of wax paper, cover a space about twice as wide as your pie pan. Put the ball  in the middle of the waxed paper, sprinkle some flour on top, cover it with another sheet of wax paper and roll it flat with a  wine bottle. ( No need to clutter the galley with tools you don't need. A bourbon bottle will also make a fine rolling pin as long as it's not square.)

Roll it to less than a quarter inch thick, but don't work it any more than you have to. Excessive rolling will make your crust tough and chewy.

Grease a deep 9-inch clear Pyrex pie pan with a little butter-- bottom, sides and rim.

Put the greased pie pan upside down on the flattened dough. Work a big spatula or your hand under the wax paper and–without thinking about it-- flip the whole thing right side up. If you think, you'll lose your nerve and screw it up. Just do it. Mold the dough into the pie pan before you try to remove the wax paper, then gently pull the paper away from the dough. There'll be some repair work necessary, which you can do by pressing the various extra scraps into cracks and crevices–still avoiding touching too much. Finally, "flute" the edges, pressing both sides of the rim between the thumbs and index fingers of both hands.

Inspect your apples for liquid in the bottom of the bowl. Add a couple of table spoons of  flour to absorb the liquid, mix well, and dump the apples in the crust.

TOP CRUST:
The last thing you want is steamed apple pie, so you cover the apples with a crumb crust, which breathes.

Grab that second half of your flour and butter mix from the cooler, fluff it up with your knives, and add a cup or so of brown sugar and the spices you used earlier, going easy on the spices. Mix the whole thing with your knives and when it's crumbly  pour it on top of the apples. What falls onto the table, scoop up and pour again. It will look very tall.

Do yourself a favor and put foil or a foil covered baking sheet on an oven rack below the rack on which you'll bake the pie to catch drips. . (Check ahead of time that your racks are positioned to make top room for the pie to clear the top of the oven.)

Bake at  400 degrees for 15 minutes.

Lower the temperature to 350 and bake another 45 minutes. (A little longer if you have a slow oven)

It may come out still quite tall, but it will settle a bit.

Save some for the next day. Second day pie for breakfast is one of the great luxuries.

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