Apple Pie

I was looking for a good american apple pie recipe, as I'm supposed to make an apple pie for our Thanksgiving Dinner. Since I'm not american, and don't have a lot of experience baking apple pies, I went to guess where? Aha! Google! Found lots of recipes and thought I might as well post the results of my search to save you time! All things are possible with Google, ha! Anyways, I thought this Youtube clip of how to make a simple apple pie was the best. By the way, since we have quite a few americans in our family, although brazilians don't celebrate Thanksgiving, nor have anything similar, as it's a very patriotic american thing,  but we do in our family. It's a nice way to gather family and friends and have some fun and good food and drinks and thank God for all the good things He gave us this past year!
As for how to make the crust, here are a couple of good basic recipes:

Never Fail Pie Crust Recipe

Makes enough for about 3 double crusted pies. Fans of this recipe call it the Never Fail pie crust.

Ingredients:
6 cups flour
1 pound package lard
1 teaspoon salt
7 ounces 7UP soda pop

Add salt to flour and sift together. Mix in the lard until mixture resembles small peas. Add the 7Up and mix well. Divide the mixture into small balls, enough in each for a pie crust top or bottom and wrap in plastic wrap. Store in refrigerator until ready to use or use immediately for your favorite pie.

When ready to use, roll out as above. Follow the pie recipe for proper baking times and temperatures. 

BASIC APPLE PIE RECIPE   8 servings This is my mom's recipe for apple pie (I've even successfully made it a few times!)   You can make the crust or you can use a premade one.

CRUST (recipe makes one double crust):

2 1/2 cups white flour
2 tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup cold butter, broken into small pieces
5 tbsp. cold vegetable shortening
8 tbsp. ice water

• Measure the flour, sugar and salt togetherl.  Stir to combine.
• Add the chilled butter pieces and shortening to the bowl. Cut them in with a pastry cutter or knife.  Don't over mix them.
• Add the ice water. Mix until the dough holds together (add a bit more water, if necessary).
• Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, knead it together, then divide in half.  
• Flatten each half into a disk, wrap in saran wrap and chill for at least half an hour.
• Roll out one of the disks on a lightly floured surface until you have a circle that's about 12 inches in diameter.
• Put the circle in a 9" pie plate, trimming any extra dough from the edges with a sharp knife (parents only). Return it to the refrigerator until you are ready to make the pie.
• Add filling (see below)
• Roll out the second ball of dough and cover top.  Use a fork or your fingers to pinch the edges together.  cut a couple slits in the top.

FILLING

1/3 to 2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
8 medium sized apples (a medium apple = about 1 cup)
2 tablespoons margarine

• Heat oven to 425 degrees.
• Peel, core and slice the apples.  Try to keep the size of the slices even.
• Mix sugar, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt in large bowl.
• Stir in apples.
• Pour into pastry-lined pie plate.
• Dot with margarine.
• Cover with top crust and seal the edges. Cut slits in the top. 
• OPTIONAL:  Cover edge with 3-inch strip of aluminum foil to prevent too much browning.
• Remove foil during last 15 minutes of baking.
• Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust.

Wish me luck for my apple pie! I'll post the results here this weekend, plus pictures of our dinner! Happy Thanksgiving to all americans worldwide.