Apple Pie Makes Things Better

I made an apple pie this week, which isn’t particularly earth shattering or anything. But it was satisfying in a hippie-earth-mamma kind of way to walk into my backyard, pick apples, and turn them into something delicious. I didn’t have a lot of faith in my pie baking abilities, so I decided to make it really pretty and take a lot of photos, just in case I needed to make the time spent worthwhile.  

One of the things about the internet that makes me INSANE is when you find a recipe on someone’s blog, but you have to wade through two pages of blathering on before you get to the actual recipe.  So without further ado…

Pie Crust

6 cups All Purpose Flour

3 cups chilled Butter

3 teaspoons salt

1 ½ cups ice water

½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Mix flour, butter, and salt with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add ice water and apple cider vinegar, mix until dough is smooth. Chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

This is supposed to be enough dough to make three, two crust pies. But maybe my pie pan is just really big, because I only ever get two pies out of it.

Roll it out on a floured surface to make your bottom crust.  Good luck making a top crust. I mean, seriously. That is some kind of Martha Stewart wizardry right there.  I always make something with cookie cutters because it seems a lot less complicated. If you can do lattice you are my hero. 

My Grandma Ellie always brushed her top crust with egg whites and a little water to make it shiny.  I also sprinkle sugar on top because I have a problem.

Apple Pie Filling

6-8 cups of peeled, cored, chopped apples

½ cup sugar

½ cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon of cinnamon

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Juice from half a lemon

Toss it all together. Put it in the pie and bake it at 375 for an hour.

Mmmmkay...here are some things…

1. I should have cooked the apples a little first.  They were a little too crunchy.  It was still delicious, and I like the crunch.  But my kids were like “the apples aren’t soft like applesauce.” 

2. I put foil over the pie for the first 45 minutes while it baked and I’m glad I did because I am forever burning the edges of pies. 

3. If this was a berry pie I probably would have baked the bottom crust for about 8 minutes before putting the berries in. (Because soggy.)