Laden down by what can only be described as an uninspiring start to my attempt at the recipes in "I'm Just Here for the Food", I broke down and made a recipe from Good Eats.  The difference in results between Good Eats (the TV show) and the book is beginning to worry me.  The stuff I've done from the show is pretty much totally solid.  As I've mentioned before, I can count the unsuccessful recipes on 2 fingers.  Anyway, I decided to break out the apple pie for two reasons.  First, I was in a slump.  Second, Marie had given me a tart pan for Christmas for the sole purpose of making apple pie.  The purpose of the tart pan was to have something deep enough to house lots of apples, and because the bottom comes out,  you can remove the sides and slice up the pie with ease.  

A few words on the use of spirits in cooking:  I do it.  I totally respect those who don't, and think it's a matter of personal choice based on your interpretation of the Word of Wisdom (assuming you're LDS - if you're not, please feel free to return to your game of beer pong).  I'm not interested in getting buzzed on a batch of uncooked chocolate rum balls, and I've never made anything that tasted (to me) like it had alcohol in it.  I just think there are some things that do better if treated with ethanol - fish, for instance.  This pie crust has some applejack in it - a spirit made from distilling apples.   The pie itself was straight-forward.  Make the crust dough and chill.  Chop up the apples, coat with sugar and let sit for 1.5 hrs.  Roll out dough for crust, toss other ingredients with apples, and put into pan.  Cover w/dough and make a hole for the pie bird - I didn't have one  so I made one out of tin foil.

  

The pie was absolutely amazing.  First, the crust was flaky without being weak.  Whole idea of this recipe is that you've got to taste apples when you make apple pie.  The only spice that's supposed to be added is grains of paradise, which is obscure enough that I couldn't buy any at the store.  I just put in a little cardamom instead.  I also had to substitute lemon curd for apple jelly, which safeway also does not sell. Straight out of the oven, the pie looked amazing.  It was so late when we got it out that we had not will-power to wait the 4 hours required to completely cool and set.  By the way, we could see that the "pie bird" was working overtime when we got the pie out of the oven - steam was shooting its "beak".  

So we dug in.  As I mentioned, the crust was flaky and the apples were cooked to goey perfection.  The whole thing was not too sweet, and loaded with unadulterated apple flavor.  The running filling you see in the picture was something we expected since we didn't even wait an hour to dig in.  The half of the pie we didn't eat was left to set overnight.

The next day (today) the pie tasted even better, and had set up completely.  Needless to say, the rest didn't last long.  We probably would have made another one today if we owned enough apples.  

Overall Rating: 5 salt cellars out of 5 - a home run.

What I would do differently next time: First, start with the apples first, since they have to sit for 1.5 hrs, and the dough only needs an hour in the fridge.  Second, split the dough 60-40 for the top and bottom crust.  The bottom crust needs substantially more dough than the top, and splitting the dough in half (as Alton directs) leaves too much for the top and not enough for the bottom.  Lastly, I would have waited for the pie to set up, but I probably won't be able to wait next time, either.  Waiting is a common theme in Alton's recipes: many times you have to start a recipe days in advance in order to be able to execute it.  For example, corned beef needs 10 days, and sauerbrauten needs 3.  All in all, a great recipe, and one we'll probably make again soon.