“I call it my $300 Apple Pie,” Wanda Holbrooks said, “because I added all my prize money for the pie and it comes to almost that.”
Most of the prize money has come from the pie’s entry in the bake-off at the annual fall Apple Festival held in Westminster. The decades-long event, sponsored by the South Carolina Apple Festival Association and the city of Westminster, is held each year on Labor Day weekend. This year it will be Sept. 10-12. Anyone can enter the festival’s bake-off.
Wanda has entered the bake-off several times, almost always collecting a prize. A native of Westminster, she and her husband Larry have been members of Westminster Baptist Church for 20 years or so, where Craig Canton is pastor. The church is part of Beaverdam Baptist Association.
Larry, a deacon, works with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. Wanda calls herself a full-time grandparent. They have two daughters – Kimberly and her husband, Brian Williams, have three children, Madison, Sam and Reese; and Karen and her husband, Brad Long, have two children, Taylor and John David.
Wanda cares for 1-year-old granddaughter Reese four days a week. But not on Wednesday. That day she prepares dinner for the church membership, where around 125-130 usually attend. She does this by herself – with the help of God, she says. She believes this is her calling and enjoys the work.
But that isn’t the only thing. She is an assistant Sunday school teacher for a young married class and next year will help with the middle school age group. She also directs the fellowship committee and works with the senior adults group Forever Young, and if no trip is planned she will prepare lunch for the group on the first Tuesday of each month. She is also a part of “Unspoken Grace,” an interpretative movement class that combines low-level exercise, graceful dance and dignified motion.
Wanda doesn’t recall where she got this recipe, but it was clipped from a publication long ago and the edges are all frayed. As other cooks do, she has made changes in the original. We thank Carolyn Harris, who served on the festival board for many years, for telling us about Wanda’s apple pie – and Wanda for sharing the recipe with us.
Although our hot days don’t feel like autumn now, in a few weeks we’ll be in the fall season. On one of those weekends, plan to bake Wanda’s excellent apple pie and have a $300 dessert for … Sunday Dinner.
$300 Apple Pie
⅓ cup firmly packed brown sugar
1½ tablespoons corn syrup
1 15-ounce package pie crust in roll
¾ cup sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine
½ cup broken pecans
5 Granny Smith apples
4 tablespoons flour
In a 10-inch pie plate, combine the brown sugar, melted butter and corn syrup, and stir well to mix. Sprinkle on the chopped pecans.
Unroll the pastry shells and cut one to fit the bottom of the pie plate. Save the trimmings. Lay it over the sugar-syrup-butter-pecan mix.
Peel, core, and slice the apples and arrange over the crust.
Combine the ¾ cup sugar, flour and cinnamon, and sprinkle on top of the apples.
Place the remaining pie crust over the apples and pie plate. Flute the edges of the crust and cut slits in top. If desired, cut leaf or apple shapes from the trimmings of the first crust and lay on top.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bake pie for exactly 8 minutes. Then reduce heat to 375 degrees and bake 20-35 minutes until lightly brown. If edges begin to brown too much, cover them with strips of aluminum foil.