Nancy Byal's Cider-infused apple pie
By Brandy Dahmn
1st place winner in the 2013 Logan County Fair My Favorite Pie contest

Filling:

12 cups peeled, cored, and sliced baking apples
3/4 cup apple cider
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon cold butter cut into small pieces

Double crust pie pastry

2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold vegetable shortening cut into pieces
6-8 tablespoons cold water

Roll half of pastry into 13-inch circle and tuck into a 9-1/2 inch deep dish pie pan.  Place in refrigerator 15 minutes.

Combine apples and cider in a large non-reactive pan.  Bring to a boil, cover, and cook over relatively high heat for 5 minutes, stirring once or twice.  Drain the apples, reserving the juice.  Transfer the juice to a small non-reactive saucepan and reduce over medium-high heat to 1/4 cup.  Combine with apples and let cool.

Preheat oven to 375-degrees,  In a small bowl, conbine sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.  Stir into cooled apples and set aside.

Roll the other half of the pastry into an 11-1/2 inch circle.  Turn the filling into the cooled pie shell, smooth the top, and dot with the butter.  Put the top on, sealing it to the bottom pastry and poke several steam vents into the top of the pie.  Using a pastry brush, brush the pie lightly with milk, then sprinkle with sugar.

Place pie on the center oven rack and bake 65-70 minutes.  Be sure to put something below the pie pan to catch drips.

Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool at least 2 hours before serving.