October DOTM: Apple Cream Pie

I'm sending out my October DOTM today!
It's a recipe for Apple Cream Pie from Mildred Armstrong Kalish's memoir Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression (which I highly recommend!) Check out the book's website for more farm recipes!

From Chapter 11, "Farm Food"

Here’s how to make crust for two large one-crust pies.

3 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/8 cup skim or whole milk

Blend all together with a fork, and form into two equal balls using your hands. Roll out between two sheets of wax paper. Peel the top paper off the dough using a spatula. With the paper side up, carefully fit the crust into the pie pan. Now carefully remove the wax paper. If the crust tears, don’t worry. Using your fingers, carefully paste over the hole. Take care not to stretch the dough. Unlike the old-fashioned lard dough, you can handle this mixture as much as you like. You will probably never make the old-fashioned dough again. (I was skeptical of this crust at first, because pie crusts intimidate me anyways, but even though it's not that pretty...it was easy and delicious!)

Note: the following recipe for pie filling is for one ten-inch pie; if you want to make two pies, double it.

¾ cup + 1 tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons flour
6 large Granny Smith apples
½ pint heavy cream
cinnamon

Combine three quarters of a cup of sugar with three tablespoons flour and one half teaspoon salt. Stir. Add three tablespoons of this mixture to the dough-lined pie pan, and pat it gently but firmly into the crust with the opened palm of your hand. This little trick promises a crisp bottom crust when baked. Set aside the remainder of the sugar mixture.

Peel, core, and cut into eighths six Granny Smith apples. Add two tablespoons of lemon juice if the apples are not tart enough. Arrange apples in the crust, sprinkle with the remainder of the sugar-flour mixture, and dust liberally with cinnamon. Pour a half pint of heavy cream over all and sprinkle one tablespoon of sugar on top of this wonderful creation. Place in 450° oven for twelve minutes, then reduce the heat to 350° and bake about one hour or until the apples are done. You should test for doneness with a toothpick—or a straw drawn from the kitchen broom if you are as indifferent to the dangers of germs as we were.