Fried Apple Pies (with Canned Biscuits)

I hadn’t had one of these in over twenty years. As I thought about them the week before I was convinced they had to have been something I dreamt, not a long forgotten relic of my childhood, but the more I workshopped this recipe in my head I realized it was a dessert and a scene I had had many times before. When I was a child my aunt would make fried apple pies. I remember her making them here, in her brother’s kitchen rather than her own. Yesterday I made them based on those nearly forgotten memories. Part of me felt wrong in making them on the counter by the sink rather than to the right of the stove. The memory in my mind of Aunt June making them here in this kitchen was her standing in front of the stove, me on a stool beside her by the door into the then dining room. Each of the canned biscuits, Grands, the buttery kind were rolled out as thin as possible, and apples were spooned on. The apples back then would have come from the orchard out back, the orchard that the tornado carried away a couple years ago. She would spice the apples with cinnamon and sugar, and most likely that canned mix called Apple Pie Spice. A fork, taken from the same drawer I took one today would have been used to crimp the edges to hold the apples in. Then in a cast iron skillet, perhaps the very one I used today would be filled with a half inch of oil, heated, and the pies each placed in and fried until golden brown. The pies removed from the skillet and laid to rest on a paper towel lined plate. The same plate surely still in my cabinet next to the window. Watching the pies fry today, in that skillet, in this kitchen, on one of the final fleeting days of fall felt like a walk into the past, it felt good, it felt like a place one should visit whenever one can.

FRIED APPLE PIES (WITH CANNED BISCUITS)

1 Can Grands Biscuits

3 apples, variety doesn’t matter) cooked and seasoned in a baked apple fashion

For these photos I used our apple pie jam as filling as a substitute for the baked apples. It works just as well, especially if apples aren’t on hand and the jam is.

For the recipe I would recommend pealing and slicing your apples into thin wedges. Add to a small pot on medium heat. Add about two inches of water, 1/2 cup sugar and whatever cinnamon/nutmeg/apple pie spice combination you’d like. Allow to cook until the apples are tender.

For the dough take each biscuit and roll as thin as possible. Keep the circular shape. Once rolled spoon in the apple filling on one side of the dough, the other side will be folded over. Leave 1/4 to 1/2 inch edge to allow for crimping.

Fold the other side of the dough over to create a half circle. Using a fork crimp (press down) the edges all the way around to bond the two edges together.

In about 1/2 inch of oil in a skillet over medium heat fry your apple pies until golden brown on each side. Remove to a paper towel lined plate to drain excess oil and to cool.

Serve warm. Can keep in the fridge and be reheated for two to three days.