Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Hear me out.

I don't prefer sweets. Now, don't get me wrong, I can appreciate a good brownie or the effort that went into a crème brûlée or cheesecake. However, as a rule, I'll take a second helping of dinner and skip dessert.

I recently discussed this with my wife - she loves desserts. And she, as usual, shot me down - cold. I stated that I didn’t really have a favorite dessert. She said, "You DO have a favorite dessert. You love apple pie." And, *sigh* she's right. Every Thanksgiving, you can find me, at 1AM getting back into the apple pie.

As I think about it, I'll even eat a piece of the frozen stuff, or even the little hand-pastries covered in glazing and sealed in waxed paper that pose as apple pie (disappointment comes often). I absolutely CAN tell the difference between the mass produced pies and the real deal. I'll still seek out the apple pie. Any apple pie. ......With vanilla ice cream (the kind with flecks of bean).

But, my wife makes the Test Kitchen crust. And, every Fall we go apple picking. We'll mix up gallons of apple pie filling and I diligently fill empty aluminum pie tins full of the mix and stuff one-each in a plastic zipper bag and stack them in the freezer. There they sit - perfect shaped apple pie innards, just waiting for a fresh crust. Most of them go to friends and family. But MY pie lasts maybe a day, once cooked. Other desserts could last weeks if left up to me to eat. To illustrate, I once threw away fudge that went off (best not to ask).

But not apple pie.