Dryin' Apples & Fried Apple Pies

Back in the my Grandmother's day, food didn't come from a grocery store. You grew your own, or grew/made something that could be used for barter with those who did grow their own. These days we just drive to the store, and go shopping. Most of the time though, the flavor of store bought fruits and vegetables isn't the same as those that were home grown. So, for that reason (and the organic craze), today we're seeing a revival of growing your own food. Back in the day, though, it wasn't an option... you grew your own or you didn't eat. And once it was grown you needed to preserve it some way. Today's options are freezing, canning, or dehydrating (drying). In the years before electricity, freezing wasn't an option.  Today we can things, freeze things, and dehydrate things… depending on which is best for what we want to use the produce for in the coming days and months.

We've always had fruit trees growing around us.  When I was a kid, Dad planted all sorts… cherry, damson, plum, and apple…….. All sorts of apple trees.  Apples are ready for the pickin' from early summer through Fall… and we seem to have some of every type here on our small farm.  The early apples are the best for applesauce.  The summer apples are good for chunking up and freezing for stewed apples later this winter.  Fall apples are good for pies, so those are chunked and frozen for those.  But there's only just so much that you can use over one wintertime (or sometimes two, depending on the bounty of the crop that year)… so what do you do with the rest?  Well, you dry them, of course. 

Back when Mom was a kid, that meant peeling, coring, and slicing by hand.  Then a sheet was spread out on the roof of the well (yes, the kind you draw water up with a bucket).  The slices of apple were spread out in the sun to dry.  If it rained, that meant running outside and gathering up sheet, apples and all, really quick.  After the rain, or perhaps the next day, the sheet was spread out again and the apples laid out to finish drying.  On a hot summer day, it wouldn't take long… just a day or two.  They were then gathered up and finished off in the oven to kill any bugs that might have gotten on them.  Sometimes she would spread a sheet out in the attic and dry them there.  I can still remember how it smelled upstairs when she had a lot of them drying.  The scent of apples everywhere.  Once they were dry to the point of still pliable but almost crispy, she'd put them an old cloth sugar or flour sack (back in those days things like sugar, flour and feed for the animals came in clothe sacks, not paper or plastic… those were saved and repurposed, but that's a story for another day).  As time went by, she moved to those square thick plastic freezer cartons and stored them in the freezer.  But the method of drying stayed the same for many years.  It wasn't until a couple of decades ago that that changed.

Today we use a dehydrator, and we even have a device that will strip the apple off the core in one continuous spiral slice (well that's the theory anyway… it seldom "works as intended" because apples aren't all the same size and symmetrically shaped, etc.).  Sometimes, though, we still sit and peel them by hand, slice chunks off the core, then slice them in thin slices.  Depends on how many apples we need to do at one time, as to which method is used.  Once they are sliced, we lay them on the trays that fit into the dehydrator… as many as will fit on a tray without laying one on top of the other.  24 hours later, they are dry but still pliable.  Those are gathered up into freezer bags and put into the freezer for later use.  You can put them all down into one big plastic bag, or portion them into smaller ones…. either way is fine.

Then, come winter…. It's time for some Fried Apple Pies.  Now for the novice that has never tried these handfuls of heavenly delight, these look very similar to those fruit pies that you can buy for a buck at the Dollar Store or the corner Quick Mart.  The difference is the taste…. I mean, com'on… doesn't homemade almost always taste better than store bought anything?! 

Start by getting out some of those dried apples out of the freezer.  Drop them into a sauce pan (about a double handful) along with about twice as much water.  Into that had the goodness…. sugar, cinnamon, maybe a touch of nutmeg… all the spices you'd think of when making an apple pie.  Simmer all those together until they make a thick goo.  You want the spices to be heavier than an apple pie because all you'll use is a heaping tablespoon per pie.  Now here's where most folks nowadays cheat a little…  Back in the day, you had to make dough, as if you were making a cross between pie crust and biscuits, while the apples were cooking down.  Nowadays, most folks just use canned biscuits.  Honestly, the taste isn't that different, and it saves a lot of time.  Each "biscuit" amount of dough is rolled out flat, and should be roughly the size of a saucer or dessert plate.  Have a small dish of water handy.  Place a heaping tablespoon of the apple goo into the center.  Fold the dough in half, and use the water to wet the edge to seal.  A fork dipped in flour and pressed around the edge finishes the seal.  Pop those in a frying pan that's coated in veg or canola oil and fry to brown on both sides.  Once browned, remove from pan, and finish any way you choose.  Some people leave them as they are, some sprinkle them with confectioner's sugar, and others take them straight from the pan and roll them in a sugar/cinnamon mixture.  Whichever way you choose, it's time for a delicious dessert or snack once they cool a bit. 

These are so popular in our house, that my brother has asked for a huge pile of them as his birthday "cake" on more than one occasion.  They are a quick on-the-go sort of snack as well, so the men folk always liked seeing a pile of these on the stove or counter so they could grab one or two and get back outside to finish whatever work needed doing. 

Other fruit was used for the inside of those fried pies from time to time…. peaches especially…. but the dried apples were most often used.  Apples were always plentiful, and while some apples were better for applesauce than others, drying was an equalizer. 

From InASouthernKitchen.com

Fried Apple Pies were always one of those smells that we knew as soon as we came in the house.  They were always one of those snacks that you just had to have one of right now!  All I have to do is think about one and the flood of childhood memories associated with these handfuls of heavenly delight fill my mind's eye.  They say that scent is one of the best memory hooks… remember a scent, and the memory follows.  I'm pretty sure that taste is another.

For a start on the recipe, you can go here:  https://inasouthernkitchen.com/grannys-fried-apple-pies/ .....  but Southern cooks always start with a recipe, then make it their own.  Don't forget to season heavily with LOVE!!!

If you've never tried a Fried Apple Pie, you should…… and not the ones you get from the Dollar Store.