Just Like Grandma Kipp's Pie

There's nothing better than a warm, bubbly, holiday pie straight from the oven, am I right?

(Even though I'm running a special for holiday cakes...) But I say you can turn almost any pie flavors into a yummy cake! SO you can have your pie and cake this season!

My personal favorite pie is a Dutch apple. With a crumb topping. It has to be a crumb, or I send it back. The crumb topping changes everything for me.

The notes of cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar scream holidays for me. Recently, I made a Dutch apple pie for our Thanksgiving meal. Well, my dad called me the next day to tell me some rather heartwarming news. He said, "Whitney, this pie tastes almost just like my grandma Kipp's apple pie. And that was always my favorite. I just wanted to tell you that."

Well first off, my dad is a man of few words, so to hear him say that made me so happy for multiple reasons. But one of them being, that he said it tasted just like his grandma Kipp's recipe. And if you haven't noticed, the name of my business is Kippcakes. My maiden name was Kipp and with only two girls in the family, I wanted to keep the name going. I was so honored that my pie tasted so reminiscent of my great grandma Kipp's. Pure joy!

So while we're on the subject of pie, I wanted to talk about the crust. It's so important to have a moist, tender, flaky crumb on your crust, and I've tested recipe after recipe for some time to get just that. A good crust (and topping) really make a pie and I wanted to share my crust recipe with you! Enjoy!

The Perfect Pie Crust:

1/2 cup to 1 cup of ice cold water

2 sticks of salted* COLD butter

1 stick of butter flavored shortening, COLD

1 1/2 teaspoon of salt

2 tablespoons sugar

4-5 cups of flour, give or take (it's a texture game)

Cut the butter and shortening into little pieces and use a pie cutter to mix it into the flour until it forms a crumbly dough. Then add salt, sugar and mix again, then a few tablespoons at a time, mix in cold water until it starts to form a dough. Use your hands at this point! Work it together until it forms a dough (leaving small chunks of butter/shortening throughout). Put in fridge to chill a bit before rolling it out for your pies.

Yields about 4-5 crusts.

Thanks for letting me share my stories and recipes with you and hope you have a blessed and safe holiday season!