APPLE PIE FOR YOM KIPPUR AND 2 OTHER PIES FOR GOOD LUCK

These are just homey American-style pies - not to be confused with the chic and delicate tarts in the French cookbooks.  Also, much silliness has been devoted to what is the best thickener (so the inside doesn't become a soupy mess) - tapioca, arrowroot, cassava...oh, really.  I think flour is fine, but do experiment if you like.
This apple pie is made every Yom Kippur, to be ready when the fasting is over.  Thereby hangs a tale, as Reid's mother used to say - get Reid to tell it to you.
Preheat oven to 350, and get out a 9" pie plate, deeper is better. 
(I think this photo is of a strawberry-rhubarb pie - to follow - but you get the picture.) 

Piecrust:

• 13 TB butter, cold
• 2 cps. flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 TB sugar
• 3 TB cold water

Combine everything but the water, either using a food processor, or pinching it and rubbing it together with your fingers, until it’s pretty well blended ("the texture of coarse cornmeal" as all the recipes say.)  Add the water I TB at a time and blend it together (use pulse if processing) until it just barely forms a ball.  Wrap it up in wax paper and put it in the refrigerator.

Filling:

• 9 large apples
• ½ cp. brown sugar
• ¼ cp. flour
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• ½ tsp. nutmeg
• ¼ tsp cardamom (optional)
• 2 TB heavy cream or one beaten egg
• sugar, cinnamon sugar, or if you're feeling trendy, turbinado

Peel and slice the apples (whatever is in season and flavorful at the time – really I've never gone wrong.)  Put in a bowl with the sugar, flour, and spices, and stir it all together until the slices are all coated.

Take the pie crust out of the refrigerator and cut it in half (actually a little more than half.) If it’s become really hard by this time, let it soften a bit.  On a lightly floured surface, roll that piece out to a circle somewhat larger than the pie plate (when I started out, I found that rolling this out between sheets of wax paper made it easier.  You keep flipping it over and removing the wrinkled wax paper and then put it back on top. Also you can keep using some flour to keep it from sticking.)  Roll the circle of dough lightly around the rolling pin and then unroll onto the pie plate.

Pour all the apple slices and their seasoning into the crust, mounding it in the middle. You may need to press the fruit together a bit so the mound isn't too high and the sides of the crust still show.  Alternatively, if there isn’t enough fruit to make a mound in the center, slice some more and put it on.  Dip your finger in water and slightly wet the edges of the pie crust.  Now roll out the other crust and do the same thing with the rolling pin to unroll it over the top. Trim the edges and crimp them together.  Use a pastry brush to paint the top with heavy cream (or beaten egg, if you'd rather.)  Sprinkle the top with plain or cinnamon sugar.  Cut a few holes or lines in it to let out the steam.

Bake at 350 for about an hour, turning it around once, and checking from time to time after about ½ hour to see if it’s browning on top too quickly. If it is, lay a piece of aluminum foil lightly over it. Also at this point you might want to put a pan or some foil on a rack below the pie, because it often spills over and is a mess to clean.  It’s done when you see some liquid inside bubbling (that dissolves the flour in the filling) and it starts to smell delicious.

MORE PIES:
Strawberry-rhubarb: must be made when you see the rhubarb in the spring in the farmer's markets! 
Do the same as above as regards the piecrust.
Filling:

• scant 3 cps. washed and sliced (1/2") rhubarb
• scant 3 cps. washed and sliced strawberries
• 1 cp. sugar
• 1/3 cp. flour

Mix this all together, and just do the same thing it says to do above with the apples, including the baking.

Blueberry: there are a few weeks in the summer when these are super cheap - take advantage!  Blueberries are now considered to add several decades to your life.  Pies will too.  For this I just follow Mark Bittman - as one should do always.
filling:

• 5 cps. blueberries, picked over and rinsed and dried a bit
• 3/4 cp. sugar
• 2 TB cornstarch
• some cinnamon, maybe allspice or nutmeg

Mix this all together, and ditto the above.