Taste & Create II: Apple (no Raspberry) Pie

My first blogger event! Thanks to Nicole Susanne of For the Love of Food for letting me get my feet wet with her event. I also need to thank her for partnering us together - her blog had so many great recipes to choose from! I couldn't decide what to make, but luckily Joe made the decision for me. Last weekend he told me that he was really in the mood for an apple pie. I had only attempted homemade apple pie once before in my life. A few years ago Joe and I went apple picking and made a pie from an old family recipe of my friend. The pie was fine, but Joe and I, inexperienced as we were, didn't take into account the fact that the apples would shrink when cooked and didn't put enough in. So we ended up with crust, apples, then about 2 inches of air before the top crust. That was my last attempt. But when I found Apple Raspberry Pie recipe in Nicole Susanne's blog I knew I had found my entry.

I left out the raspberries because Joe was set on a regular apple pie. Joe did the apple peeling, coring and slicing for me while I made the crust. The crust came together quickly and easily, but I must have done something wrong because when I rolled it out it would not stay together. Pieces kept breaking off and it was unusable. I chucked the batch of dough and tried again, this time adding more water as I thought perhaps my first crust was too dry. This crust worked better - it was still a little fragile but held up when I put it in the pan. The pie came out delicious - sweet and juicy with a nice flaky crust. The filling was a little liquidy, but it did not make the crust soggy, so no harm! Joe enjoyed a big piece with vanilla ice cream right after it was baked, and then had some more for breakfast the next morning. I will definitely use this recipe again!

Apple Pie

Ingredients:

2 Pie crusts (see recipe below)

6 Cups of peeled and sliced Apples (I used half cortland and half granny smith)

¾ Cup of Sugar

3 Tablespoons of Flour
½ teaspoon of Cinnamon

dash of Salt

1 teaspoon of Butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425°F. In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt. Place apples in the bowl and mix until well coated. Place 1 pie crust into a pie dish and fill with apple filling. Cut butter into little pieces and sprinkle on top of the filling. Place the second pie crust over the filling and trim and flute the edges. Cut about 6 slits into the top of the pie to let it breath while baking.Bake for 40-45 minutes or until juices begin to bubble through the slits. Let stand for 20 minutes before serving.

Pie Crust

Ingredients:

2 Cups Flour

1 teaspoon Salt

2/3 Cup plus 2 Tablespoon Vegetable Shorting for baking

4-6 Tablespoons of cold Water

Directions:

Unbaked Pie Crust:

Mix flour and salt in medium bowl. Cut in shortening, using 2 forks, until particles are size of small peas. Sprinkle with cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and pastry almost leaves side of bowl (1 to 3 teaspoons more water can be added if necessary).
Gather pastry into a ball. Place on plastic wrap and flatten, then completely cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate about 45 minutes or until dough is firm and cold, yet pliable. If refrigerated longer, let pastry soften slightly before rolling.
Roll pastry, using floured rolling pin, into circle 2 inches larger than upside-down 9-inch glass pie plate. Fold pastry into fourths; place in pie plate. Unfold and ease into plate, pressing firmly against bottom and side and being careful not to stretch pastry, which will cause it to shrink when baked.
Trim overhanging edge of pastry 1 inch from rim of pie plate. Fold and roll pastry under, even with plate; flute as desired. Continue with directions in pie recipe.