If you have plans this weekend that do not include apple pie, it's time to come down with a cold. This Saturday is the Slow Food Pittsburgh Urban Apple Festival, featuring the Pro/Am Pie-Baking Contest and none other than yours truly in her first pie-baking endeavor (second if you count the test run).

Not only will I be attending the Apple Fest, but I'll also be judging in the apple pie competition. So I've been doing a lot of thinking about what makes a great apple pie. Naturally, it starts with the apples. You can't go wrong with a tart Granny Smith, but there are so many local varieties to choose from that there's plenty of room to explore. I also like a flaky, not-too-brown crust - one that's not crunchy and just a little bit sweet. And while there's something to be said for keeping it simple, I'm always for experimentation.

So the organizers of this weekend's event, which features cider, a Johnny Appleseed Look-Alike Contest, apple-cheese pairings and oodles of local apples, told me that I would judge in the amateur category... unless it so happened that I was planning to enter a pie myself, in which case I could judge in the professional category. So although I had never baked a pie before in my life, my pie-making career officially began last weekend with the sole purpose of allowing me to judge the pro pies.

But even with this somewhat self-serving beginning, watch out, Pittsburgh, because it turns out the girl can follow a recipe after all.

To taste this pie - and many, many others - for just $2 a slice, come to the Urban Apple Festival on Saturday. Proceeds support the PA Association for Sustainable Agriculture, and admission is just $3 ($2 for kids).

Urban Apple Festival and Pro-Am Pie-Baking Contest
11 am - 2 pm, Saturday, November 10, 2007
Union Project
801 N Negley Ave, Stanton Heights

Apple Pie with Cranberries, Raisins and Cinnamon Crumb Topping
Adapted from Epicurious

Crust:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/4 cup (or more) ice water
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Filling:
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
1 inch piece of cinnamon stick, freshly grated or ground
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom (about 6 pods)
2 3/4 pounds tart pie apples, peeled, halved, cored, cut into 1/8-inch-thick slices
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried cranberries
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Crumb Topping:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
3/4 inch piece of cinnamon stick, freshly grated or ground
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

In a food processor, pulse together flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles a coarse meal. Combine ice water and vinegar in a small bowl, then add to processor and pulse until moist clumps form. Add more ice water by teaspoonfuls if the mixture is dry. Remove dough from the food processor onto plastic wrap, gather into a ball and flatten the ball into a disk. Wrap tightly and chill for at least one hour or overnight.

When you are ready to bake the pie - count on about 30-40 minutes of prep time from this point - remove the dough from the refrigerator. Roll out the dough on a well-floured work surface into a 13-inch round. Transfer to a 9-inch deep-dish glass pie dish. Fold edges under and crimp, forming crust sides 1/4 inch above the rim of the pie dish. Freeze 20 minutes.

While the crust is in the freezer, preheat the over to 375 degrees and prepare your apples. Combine brown sugar, flour, lemon peel, cinnamon and cardamom in a large bowl. Add the apple slices, raisins, cranberries and vanilla. Toss to coat. Transfer the filling to the unbaked crust. Mound the filling in the center but make sure the sides have a fair share, too. Bake 40 minutes or until the apples begin to soften.

While the pie is in the oven, prepare the crumb topping. Whisk together the flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Add the butter and rub it in the mixture with your (preferably clean) fingertips. At first it will seem as though you are just making flat pieces of butter in sugar, but all of a sudden perfect crumbs will come together.

Sprinkle the topping over the hot pie, being sure to cover it evenly. Continue to bake until apples are tender and the topping is browned and crisp, about 50 minutes. You can cover the crust edges with foil if they are browning faster than the topping. Remove and cool on a pie rack for at least 2 hours.

This pie is excellent on its own or paired with vanilla ice cream.

A few tips:
1. In my test run, this recipe made a wet dough that took a lot of flour when I rolled it out. I'll let you know if round two produces different results.

2. In my test run, I used lemon juice from the lemon to preserve my apples while I prepared everything. Combined with the zest in the filling and my pucker-inducing Granny Smith apples, I found the finished product to have too strong of a citrus taste. For the contest, I'll be using straight pectin to avoid the added lemon flavor, as well as local Red Rome apples to cut down on the acidity. A taste-tester suggested that a good base of lye would also work, but I won't be taking his advice.

3. The apples in the test run pie were a bit too cooked. I'll be cutting them thicker for the competition version and also par-baking the crust for five or ten minutes before they go in.