This Apple Pie Recipe Is the Holiday Dessert Your Family Will Request Every Year

Miss Edna's Lemon Apple Pie

My little brother Donnie and I loved to go to the Café our parents owned. It was about half a mile from our house, it was the original Alta Loma Café, along Highway 6 in Alta Loma, Texas. Mama or daddy took us and picked us up from there multiple times a day. As we grew up, we often walked to and from or rode our bikes. 

A daily hot luncheon was served five days a week, good solid southern dishes were on the menu which was written on a hard plastic fold-out number with raspy metal on the corners, you know the kind. There was a paper insert for lunch items for the day written in my mother’s beautiful cursive script: 

Daily Blue Plate Luncheon Specials

Monday: Meatloaf and Dirty Rice 

Tuesday: Chicken fried chicken and Okra with Tomatoes

Hamburger Steak Smothered in Onions and Brown Gravy with Macaroni and Cheese 

Fried Chicken with Mashed Potatoes and Cream Gravy 

Fried shrimp and Coleslaw

Fried fish and fries 

*All Luncheon Menu Items Served with Mixed Vegetables

Berry pies

Naturally, hamburgers, hot dogs, and sandwiches-club, rare roast beef, BBQ brisket and various supper items rounded out the menu.

One thing that never changed was that we always had pie, pie, pie. I found out that there was a neighbor lady, one of my mother’s friends that we called the Pie Queen that baked up a storm and created some of the best pies in existence for the cafe: 

Awesome Apple Pie

Blissful Blueberry Pie 

Perfect Peach Pie

Cheery Cherry Pie

Craving Coconut Pie

Cha-Cha-Chocolate Pie

Laughing Lemon Pie

Perfect Pecan Pie

Pumpkin pie

I can’t say which one was the best pie on the planet, but my two favorites were the Awesome Apple Pie and the Perfect Pecan Pie. Her pecans were crunchy, buttery, chewy and decadent. I could bathe in that pecan goo. We had so much pie, you’d think we would be sick of it. Ah Contraire. Never happened.

All of this pie talk put me in mind of the orphanage where Cook, who I named Miss Edna, because I can’t remember her name from way back then. She made her own prized pie, one I have never forgotten, it was that good. When she made it, you could close your eyes and smell the cinnamon, the nutmeg, the butter and brown sugar that went to town on our taste buds. I didn’t get the recipe of course, but I’ve tried to come as close to it as I can remember. It was a while back, mind you. I can still close my eyes and salivate. It came out piping hot, and we’d have to wait till it was served, which seemed a lifetime, but worth waiting for. 

Key lime pie

In our family, we started a tradition many years ago, when it was several days before Thanksgiving, we’d all gather and make pies for the upcoming holiday, so we didn’t need to scramble and bake them all in one go. We named it “Pie Night,” and it allowed us to catch our breath for Thanksgiving and to get some much-needed time together as a family. Later, we also started baking sides then too, such as dressing, green bean casserole, broccoli rice casserole, and the like. So, Pie Night became a big deal, one that none of us wanted to miss, and one that each of us look forward to each year with great anticipation. Start your very own Pie Night tradition, it will become a treasured time of year that you will never forget. Here’s to Pie Night forever.

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Miss Edna’s Lemon Apple Pie

Recipe by: Karen Hand Allen (www.karenhandallen.com)

There’s apple pie, then there’s apple pie. This delightful dessert is as American as apple pie. It’s sweet, but not too sweet, tart but not too tart and buttery but not too buttery. It’s just right. It will be the centerpiece for your next Fourth of July picnic, Winter Dinner Party or Pie Night. Don’t count on leftovers, they’ll be gone in a flash! 

Serves: 6-8

Prep Time: 20 mins | Cook Time: 45-55 mins | Rest Time: 60 mins | Total Time: 125-135 mins

Ingredients: 2 pie crusts 8  Peeled, cored and thinly sliced Granny Smith Apples ½ Cup granulated sugar ½ Cup brown sugar ½ Teaspoon salt 1  Teaspoon ground cinnamon ½ Teaspoon ground nutmeg 1  Lemon zested  Juice of ½ lemon 2  Tablespoons all purpose flour ½  Stick salted butter

Directions: Heat oven 425 degrees Place 1 pie crust in 9 inch pie plate, pressing sides, bottom. In bowl, mix all ingredients, dotting with ½ stick butter. Spoon into lined pie plate, topping with second crust. Pinch sides of crust to flute or mark around pie with tines of fork.  Cut small triangle in top crust. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes Reduce temp to 375 degrees and bake for another 30-40 minutes until filling is bubbling and crust is nicely browned