P is for Putting it All Together

This is the last in the Apple Pie Service Project Series. This one is about the big night when the pies get put together.

This project can be orchestrated in any number of ways. Since it consists of several discrete processes, you can have several small-group activities or put them all together in one (hopefully VERY well organized) evening.

As I have suggested in Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4, the activities are:

Picking apples
Peeling and slicing of apples (they can be frozen)
Making of flour/shortening mix
Rolling of bottom crusts
Rolling of top crusts
Assembling pies (Also dispersing for freezing or baking)

My preference was always to take care of crusts ahead of time. However, if you’re working with refrigerated or frozen crusts, you have to set them out far enough ahead of time so they are room temperature when you’re working with them, because a cold crust will crumble.

A compromise is to do the bottom crusts ahead of time and roll out the top crusts on the spot.

If you have lots of kids and are willing to trust them with knives, then peeling and slicing apples will keep lots of them busy during the assembly evening. Remember the axiom that everyone needs an assignment and a tool to successfully complete that assignment. Also, remember that you need good supervisors.

The picture above shows how we set up an assembly night for one of the times this service project was used. Bottom crusts were already done, and top crusts were rolled on the spot. Scouts and Beehives were in charge of peeling and slicing.

When the pies were completely assembled, we put a slip with baking instructions on the top and wrapped the pies in plastic wrap. They were then delivered to the freezers that had been scoped out earlier.

An easy way of transporting is to collect soda pop flats from grocery stores. These can be put together, top and bottom to make a sturdy box for the pie, so that pies can be stacked to transport and in the freezer.

Pies can be baked the day before or the morning of delivery day. A frozen pie will need to be baked about an hour at 400 degrees. If you’ve got an oven full, it may take longer. If it’s a single pie, it may not take that long.

If you’re using the boxes, you can transport quite a few pies at a time, so you will need fewer people delivering.

I already had someone report that they used this blog to make an apple pie for their family and it turned out wonderfully.

I hope if anyone tries it as a service project that you’ll report back how it turned out and any suggestions you have for better success.

Good luck!

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