Oh and one more thing . . . how many of the dried apples do you need to rehydrate to make one pie?

Hi Judy - we dry apples both ways for different uses. Most get dried till flexible and then frozen otherwise they will mold. We freeze in 2 cup portions in vacuum bags. The rest are fully dried for shelf storage in vacuum sealed jars.

It takes 1 1/2 cups of those flexible ones, reconstituted, for a pie. 2 cups of fully dried ones, also reconstituted first, for a pie. Deep dish needs more.

We reconstitute them first in apple juice (or cider if we have it) but you can use water too. Takes a couple of hours of soaking in the hot liquid depending on how much they are dried.

Then if necessary, re-heat the mix of apples and juice/cider/water up and pour into the shell.

1 1/2 cups water or juice or cider, heated to boiling
1 1/2 - 2 cups dried apple slices
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon, ground
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
2 T butter or margarine
1-2 tsp. cornstarch (or thickener of choice)
1 double shell pie crust of choice

Pour boiling liquid over dried apples and let soak for 2 to 4 hours until almost fully reconstituted. Add remaining ingredients except butter and stir well.

Fit half of pastry into a 9-inch pie pan and pour apple mixture into this. Dot with butter or margarine cut into bits. Cover with remaining rolled-out pastry and bake 45 minutes in a 350 F. oven.

Enjoy. ;)

Dave

Oh Dave thanks so much for the recipe and method, etc.!!

I've been drying the slices fully and then keeping them in canning jars. I haven't vacuum sealed them so I hope they are okay. I didn't think I needed to vacuum seal.

Thanks again for all the thought and time put into your response.