October 21, 2009

Apple Pie


"Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness."
- Jane Austen

Does anything say harvest time quite like apple pie? There's nothing like a crisp, crunchy apple picked from an aging tree. A sweet, succulent tartness is captured in every bite.

We had two big bags of apples picked from the orchard around the corner. We put our muscles to good use lugging the fruit back to the entrance of the farm - it seemed like we'd been overzealous in our picking.
Hardly.
Those apples were gone so fast... And many of them disappeared into this pie!

Pastry
Find your favorite recipe! We used leftover pastry from the Upside Down Apple Pie. We'd stashed some in the freezer.

The Pie
We read through a few recipes and then decided to be creative. There aren't really set amounts - jut mix together the ingredients common to most recipes, add a little love, and put it in the oven. Really.

Here are some guidelines:
8 cups (2 pounds) apples - thinly sliced, peeled
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon

  • Toss the apples and lemon juice together in a bowl (the lemon juice helps prevent browning), and then throw everything else into the mix.
  • Put pastry into pie plate, put apple filling on top of pastry, drape more pastry on top and cut steam vents in the center.
  • Bake in bottom third of oven for 15 minutes at 425 F... reduce heat to 350 F and continue baking for 40 minutes (or until filling is bubbly and apples are soft when pierced with knife)

Tips:
  • Brush the rim of the bottom pastry with water before draping on the top pastry - this helps them to stick together
  • Brush the top of the pie with a little bit of milk to make it a golden brown

One last big apple pie thought:
"If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe."
- Dr. Carl Sagan

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