The season on pie is upon us. And am So excited.

This past July the Fiancé and I, with 6 of our lovely friendlies, went backcountry canoeing in Algonquin park for 9 days. For the record, I have never spent more than two days in the backcountry, never mind also canoeing and portaging, but it was the best friend vacation ever.

It was absolutely beautiful. I can't find the words to describe it. But there is nothing quite like travelling in good company on an Ontario lake.

Now, 8 people in the backcountry, is a lot of people. On top of that, we were also getting more friendlies on day 7 and 8, for a total of 12 people. And people gotta eat. Luckily we had Rob, our master fooder, who had planned out our meals and bought all the foods. About 200lbs of it. Steaks, potatoes, bacon, eggs, clif bars, apples, corn on the cob, oatmeal, and snackies!

We ate like the kings and queens of the forest. But we had one particular dessert that was a lovely unplanned delight. With a huge bag of apples still left to eat and bannock dry mix to use up, a plan was hatched to make use of the literal metric butt ton of tin foil we'd packed along with us. This plan's hopeful outcome: Back Country Apple Pie.

Back Country Apple Pie

Step one for backcountry apple pie isn't about ingredients. Although important of course, the real trick is having an oven to bake it in. Below is the story of how we built an oven out of a metric butt ton of tin foil, some abandoned grills and a desire for back country pie. The following recipe makes 2 pies, approx. 9' in diameter.

Pie Filling:
6-8 apples, cored and sliced
1 tsp cinammon
2 TBSP drinking water
2 squirts Mio (concentrated juice flavour. We used the peach one! =D)
Bannok mixture: (dry ingredients can be mixed together in advance and stored in a sealed bag)
2 cups flour
2/3 tsp salt
1 1/3 TBSP baking powder
1/4 cup butter, melted
~1/4 to 1/2 drinking water
Topping:
2 packs apple cinnamon instant oatmeal

Making a tin foil oven in the middle of nowhere:

First, find a discarded metal grate, preferably multiple, that has been left among the various campsites throughout the lake. (No, don't steal them, leaving future campers with none. Jerk.)
Set up the metal grates above the ground leaving space underneath for at least one gas burner. (We used two.) There should be at least 2 inches of clearance between the burner and the bottom of your baking grate. You don't want to burn the pie bottoms!
Cover the interior and exterior of your makeshift oven with tin foil. Make sure to overlap any cracks to keep it as air tight as possible.
Cut a door flap in your oven. Roll the long ends together a bit to keep it from coming apart.
Place your burners into the oven. Make sure that the gas canisters fit on the outside of the oven. NO EXPLOSIONS PLEASE.
Once you're satisfied that there is enough clearance for your burners and canisters, it's pie time!

Pie Filling:

Wash all your apples in drinking water. (Especially if they've been sitting at the bottom of your bear barrel for 5 days.)
Using a makeshift counter log, remove the cores and slice your apples into a bowl.
Dust your apples with cinnamon.
In a cup, dissolve Mio in drinking water. Pour over apple mixture. Mix together until apples are coated in Mio mixture.

Pie Crust:

First thing: you need something to bake your pies in. Luckily, with ample tinfoil, this is not a problem. Using a frying pan bottom as a template, form tinfoil into pie plates. Magic!
In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients with the butter. Work the butter into the flour with a fork (or between your thumbs) so that there are no large lumps.
Add ~1/4 cup of drinking water to the mixture, to start. Continue adding water until the dough starts to come together, using your hands to work the moisture into the dough.
Once the dough has come together, divide it in half. Using the palm of your hand, press the dough out flat on a cutting board (aka Elsa). It should be less than a 1/4 inch thick. Carefully transfer the dough to your pie plates of magic.

Baking:

Preheat your backcountry oven. To do so, ignited and warm up your burners. Once lit, turn them to moderate-inferno temperature and slowly and carefully position them in the oven. Close the door and let the oven heat up. (We added stones to the top of the oven so the tinfoil wouldn't blow away. We also used the metal shield from the burner kits to keep heat away from the fuel canisters.)
While the oven is preheating, place the two pie shells on a grate (it will make it easier to move the pies in and out of the oven on the grate rather than two flimsy pie shells separately). Divide the apple mixture into the two pie shells. Top each pie with a package of instant oatmeal. (Apple cinnamon preferable, if you have it!)
It's bakin' time! Using an oven mit, place your grate carrying the two pies into your oven. Close the door. And put the timer on for an hour. Depending on the ambient temperature and the air tightness of the oven it will take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half. We also rotated the pies once as well to keep the bottoms from burning.
Sit back and enjoy that apple pie smell.
Once the pies are done, which you can tell by how soft the apples are, out the oven they come. Turn off the burners and let the oven cool Completely before attempting to disassemble it. (Or don't and use it again to bake birthday cake!!! =D)

It was quite the adventure. TL;DR: Would do again. <3

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

The Dry Ingredients

Cutting in the fat

I should have really cut it into pieces first...

Pea sized yet?

I was wishing for a pastry blender.

Pea sized yes!

Looks like dough!

Ball of dough

Peace of dough

I couldn't resist...

It's multiplying

And smoothing

And multiplying again

Also smoothing?

Dough Done!

I trapped them in a force field of plastic wrap because I was afraid they were Tribbling out.

Now for the boring part...

Apples!

So Many Apples

The Sugar Mix

Mmm Nom

Sugary Apple Innards

The Bottom

Make sure it fits!

The Trick

Fold it in quarters for easy carrying.

TADA

Trim Time

Cut down to the edge with a butter knife.

Filling!

The Top

Make sure it still fits

Do the trick!

Cut some vents

TADA Again

The Second Trim

Using a butter knife, trim dough leaving about 2 cm of dough hangover to make the crust.

Water adhesion time

Seal in the goodness

Using your fingers, wet the edge of the bottom pie shell. Fold the top pie shell overhang so it incases the bottom. The water will make the layers stick together.

TADA the third

Finishing touches

Fork it good.

The Final Product

When I was a kid we had this apple tree in our backyard. Every year my mother, sister and I would make pie after pie after pie. For about 2 weeks straight in the end of August, weeknights and weekends, we would make pie. One year we made 24. Needless to say, I don't ever make that many pies anymore. Having that many pies around might unleash Thunder Thighs: The Pie Reckoning .

But I do still enjoy making pie. Specifically apple. So when we were invited to dinner at the BF's Aunt's and the option of picking their huge garden grown apples was offered I jumped at the chance. And by that I mean I made the BF go pick some.

The recipe I used is a simple recipe that my mom drilled into me as a child.

Dough

5 cups flour

2 tsp salt

1 lb shortening

(I used butter.... and crisco.... cause that's what was in my apartment)

1 egg

2 TBSP white vinegar

Cold Water

Instructions:

Measure out flour and salt into a large bowl. Mix.
Cut in shortening until pea sized.
Crack egg into a 1 cup liquid measure. Beat egg.
Add vinegar to beaten egg.
Add cold water to egg and vinegar mixture until 1 cup measure. Mix.
Pour liquid mixture into flour mixture. Mix till a dough forms. (Add extra flour if dough is to sticky to handle)

Make enough for 3 pies (top and bottom).

Freezes well!