I took a big leap this Sunday and made an apple pie. I've never made a fruit pie before, it was quite the process. I'm sure once I get the basics down it will not take me all afternoon. But it was worth it, I think it turned out really good. We'll see what my official taste tester thinks.
On Saturday I made the crust from scratch so that I didn't have to do it all in one day. The recipe makes two crusts so there is an extra one in the freezer for the next pie.
After I thawed out the crust and rolled it out, I actually got it into the pie pan without any major disaster.
I trimmed off the edge and I certainly don't get any style points. I haven't quite got the hang of crimping the edges to look fancy.
I peeled and thinly sliced 5 small granny smith apples and added them to a mixture of brown sugar, sugar, flour, vanilla and heavy cream. (the complete recipe will be at the end).
The ingredients for the topping includes brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon and butter, pulsed in the food processor til crumbled.
Pour the apple mixture into the pie shell. Also, put the pie on a rimmed cookie sheet because it may drip over the sides of the pie pan when it starts bubbling. Putting foil on the cookie sheet makes for easy cleanup. And I'm all about the easy cleanup!
Then just sprinkle the topping over the pie, then bake at 375F for an hour.
Before baking put foil around the edges and put another piece loosely over the top, this will prevent the crust and topping from getting too brown. After an hour of baking, take the foil off and let it bake for another 15 or 20 minutes until it is a golden brown. I have to confess that it took me at least 10 minutes to get that dang foil to stay around the edge.
And there ya go.......like I said, I'm still working on style and presentation. But that doesn't affect the taste. YUMMY.
As you can see, I have ingredients and utensils spread out all over the counters. Hopefully I can streamline this process in the future.
The aftermath.
This recipe is from my favorite thepioneerwoman.com. It's officially called DREAMY APPLE PIE.
Here is the complete recipe:
1 pie crust (of course you can buy a pie crust to make things a little easier and there's nothing wrong with that)
FILLING:
3 large or 5 small granny smith apples, peeled and thinly sliced.
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c sugar
1 tbl all purpose flour
1 cu heavy cream
2tsp of vanilla extract
1/8 tsp of cinnamon
TOPPING:
7 tbl. of butter
3/4 c all purpose flour
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 cu pecans
dash of salt
Preheat oven to 375F
Roll out pie dough (or use a prepared crust) and decorate the edges if you can (obviously I can't yet)
Now what I did was mix together the cream, brown and white sugar, flour, vanilla and cinnamon in a bowl and as I peeled and sliced the apples I put them in the mixture. When you're done slicing the apples then pour the whole mixture into the pie shell.
In a food processor (or by hand) combine the butter, flour, sugar, pecans and salt, then mix til everything comes together in clumps. Pour toppin over the apple filling.
Now you can fight with the foil and put that around the edges and you really need to or the crust gets too brown. Also, lay a piece of foil loosely over the top to keep that from browning too quick.
Place pie on a rimmed cookie sheet and bake for 1 hour. Then remove foil and let bake another 15 or 20 minutes til it is a golden brown. It should be nice and bubbly. Let cool and serve by itself or with whipped cream or ice cream.
It's well worth the time to fix this pie.....too good.
Kathy
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