What a glorious day for apple-picking! 
Our yearly jaunt just happens to be a stone’s throw away from the cottage. The Saint-Benoit Monastery in the Eastern Townships has apple orchards featuring a variety of apples like Lobo, Spartan, Cortland, the renowned McIntosh, Paula Red and my personal fave, the Honeycrisp.
Surrounded by beautiful Lake Memphremagog on one side and an enchanting vista of the countryside on the other, we made our way through the orchard, savouring each variety as we went along, the warmth of the sunshine beating down upon us. 
Don’t know what you would do with 25 pounds of freshly picked apples, but the old adage “An apple a day…” would leave us with not so freshly picked apples. Apple pie is a sure sign of Autumn and a great way to use up them apples. I happened to be reading an article on the acclaimed Martin Picard and his apple menu at Au Pied de Cochon in the Montreal Gazette and came across this Apple Pie recipe. An Au Pied de Cochon apple pie? Oh yeah!
Don’t be daunted by the two different crusts. The bottom crust is an all-butter one, producing a very tender crust. The top one has an egg, making it flaky and very sturdy. Well worth the extra 10 minutes, trust me!
The cinnamon-sugar mixture comes up a little short for the second pie. Just sprinkle a little extra sugar and cinnamon over the apples.
The recipe calls for Lobo apples. Because our apples were pretty much all mixed up, I used a combination of Macs, Honeycrisps, Spartans and Cortlands. My apples must have been bigger than what was used in the recipe…I had about 6 cups per pie compared to the recipe’s 3! But they did look fabulous!!
The pies came out beautifully! The crust was just perfect. The apples tasted simply natural, tender yet still holding up, with a little bit of a bite to them. Delish!
Oh my!
ohlidia 