As desserts go, the apple pie is special. Iconic, even. You can't really say the same about the Baked Alaska (an export of Norway) and you'd be hard-pressed to make a case for the relative importance of chocolate cake, although it's almost certainly eaten more frequently and with far worse dietary consequences.

No other baked good has been so thoroughly examined in song or molested on film, and none have been served to more men in handlebar mustaches at dusty roadside diners. Indeed, apple pie purports to tell us something profound about the American condition. So what's it saying right here and right now as we dive fork first into Independence Day?

Things are expensive.

We peeled back the flaky layers of the ubiquitous pastry to discover just how expensive it is in four different cities, in four different regions, across the country.



Read more of our Red, White and Greenback series.