A favorite dessert in Virginia and in other southern states is the fried pie. Both Mother and Mrs. Williams made them, but they did it a little differently.
When I was little, Mother dried her own apples. I remember she peeled them and spread them on a white sheet to dry in the hot sun. I think she put them on the roof of the pump house so the animals could not get to them and brought them onto the screen porch at night. They turned quite dark and had the stronger flavor of the dried apples sold in bulk at health food markets. The packaged ones I buy in regular grocery stores are treated to keep them light in color, and I think they taste very much like fresh apples when cooked.
Mother also made her own pastry for her turnovers, as she called them. I don’t have that recipe, but I think I remember that she said she didn’t make them quite as short so they would hold up better to frying. I don’t know if the term “quite as short” is commonly used, but she meant it to say she didn’t use as much shortening. Del says Mrs. Williams made her pastry from scratch in the early years, but by the time I came into the family, she used canned biscuits. Either works, but I’m partial to pastry. My homemade pie dough in the rectangular box in the refrigerator case works just fine. It’s a little more trouble to use pastry, of course, because you have to reroll the scraps of dough after the first cutting.
Del says that his mother occasionally made dried peach fried pies, but I only remember eating apple ones at home or at the Williams’ house. A bakery here in Carrollton makes fried pies that have regular juicy pie filling of various kinds, but they just aren’t as good.
Recipe:
1 roll of 10 canned biscuits
1 package dried apples
2 cups water
Put apples and water into small pot and simmer, covered, until the water evaporates and the apples are tender. Add a little extra water if needed before apples are tender, but be sure you let it evaporate. Mash some of the apples with potato masher, but leave them lumpy. TASTE FOR SWEETNESS. I usually don’t add any, but you might want to. Let cool.
Roll out individual biscuits until thin. Place about 1/8 c. apple mixture on each biscuit, form into a half circle and press edges together so the filling will not leak out. Then crimp edges with a fork.
Heat ½ inch oil in iron or other frying pan and fry the pies until golden. One package of apples makes just enough for 10 turnovers. Eat while still warm.
OR
Cut circles from your own pie dough or refrigerated crusts. You can determine the size of the turnover by the size of the cutter you choose, but adjust the amount of filling accordingly. If you over fill, they will ooze while frying. Mini pies are pretty, I think. Fry until golden. Eat while still warm.
OR
Use either biscuits or pie dough, but bake them instead of frying. Spread ½ tsp. oil on a cast iron griddle or pan and place it in the oven at 400 degrees until hot. Place turnovers onto the hot pan and brush the top with a little oil. Bake until golden brown. These don’t take me back to my childhood, but they are less trouble and have less fat. Del thinks that since I don’t use sugar and they don’t have the taste of fat, they might benefit from a sprinkle of powdered sugar when taken from the oven, but I think they are just fine as they are
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