Oh my......it's pie!

So, a few moons past, a good friend suggested I join a recipe card exchange. Having a self-diagnosed manic obsession for recipes, I eagerly complied! After all, I was given a full SIX WEEKS to choose, construct, and deliver a mere 20 6X6 scrapbook-style cards. Piece of cake, right? Well, in my typical Defeated Perfectionistic manner, I planned an over-the-top recipe card without actually planning an appropriate recipe. For about eight weeks. Yes, my friend gently reminded me several times to get the cards done and deliver them to her before she left for an extended vacation. And I didn't. I am a master procrastinator, in case you didn't know. I have a rep to live down to.....

In the end, my Friend A left on her trip, (to Israel, lucky girl...), and I eventually threw together a recipe that sounded festive, but in actuality I had never tried, (I swear I don't usually do that....), made a sub-par recipe card x20 that was nowhere near my mental vision, and Friend B, who is Friend A's bestest helper, had to come to my house and fetch my cards so as to include them in the bunch that was by now two weeks late!

I. Am. A. Class. A. Loser.

So, not long after, I received back a lovely stack of cards with some fabulous recipes on them and sadly admitted to myself that I did not deserve to ever be included in a recipe card exchange again.

I tucked my beautiful stack away in my cookbook closet, bringing it out periodically to peruse, mentally adding some of them into my "need to try" file, wondering if anyone had done the same with my submission: Festive Holiday Wraps, and if they were any good....

Time passed.

A lot of time.

Probably three years.

(Okay, I just reviewed my friends blog posts about her trip and discovered that it was just over a year ago that she went to Israel. Am I trapped in a time warp of some sort? Help me out Wendy--when was this card exchange? I swear it's been at least two years....)

Anyway......I digress. The whole point of this post was this:

I ran into Jacquie B. at Macey's a few weeks ago and we began to talk recipes. She brought up a particular pie she likes to make. She reminded me that it was her contribution to the card exchange. I said that it was on my mental "to try" list. She exhorted me to make it straight away! Said it was something about the paper bag that made all the difference. I said it was now at the top of my mental "to try" list because cooking a pie in a paper bag was intriguing to me. We parted company, I checked out my groceries, making sure to add a large paper bag to my pile of plastic-packaged produce (I'd rather trash a land-fill that cut down a tree...), and I went my merry way!

I included this mysterious pie in my list of Thanksgiving desserts this year. Along with a banana cream, and a lemon truffle pie that I am still tweaking before sharing.

This pie was the across the board favorite!! My kids went bonkers over it! Even Chef Jason said it was the best apple pie he'd ever had!

My conclusion? Though I am officially a cream-pie aficionado, I LOVED THIS PIE!!!! It was delicious, it was beautiful, it was fun to make---what more could you want in a pie? Oh yeah---It was also RIDICULOUSLY EASY!!!!

Check it out:

This is the pie after putting the fabulous butter-laden crumb topping on. So scrumptious!!

This is the pie after baking it in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour and 45 minutes. (slow & steamy....I can't WAIT!!)

This is me painstakingly peeling the paper bag from the pie while peeking in pleasure at the perfection in a pan!!

Oh. My. Heck. How fetchingly beautiful is THAT?!?? (fetching in the Gone With the Wind sense of the word). I cried when I unwrapped this baby. It was so gorgeous!!!!

I would have so dearly loved to have eaten a slice right then and there while it was steaming hot, but I have this thing about slicing food before its time so I put it aside until it was time for dessert.

And then it was devoured. And if it wasn't against my religion not to serve pie with this:

.....it would have been amazing even plain. But it is against my religion, so real whipped cream was the garnish of the day.

And it was perfect.

Perfect Apple Pie.

Perfect Apple Pie Topped With Crumb Crust (baked in a brown paper bag).

Thanks Jacquie.

Perfect Apple Pie Topped With Crumb Crust (baked in a brown paper bag)

Filling: 5 cups sliced (not too thin...) apples ( I used FUJI)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

2 Tbsp. flour

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Mix sugar, flour, and spices and toss with peeled, sliced apples. Pour into unbaked pie shell.

Topping: 1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 cube butter

Mix until crumbly. Sprinkle on top of pie. Place pie in large brown paper grocery bag from Maceys (support your local business man) and seal. (I made sure it wasn't touching the pie and then I stapled it shut). Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour and 45 minutes. DO NOT PEEK!!! Bag must be placed in center of the oven-above the heating element.

Serve with real whipped cream. Or not. Either way it's delicious!!!