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Raise your hand if you’ve recently visited an apple orchard and overbought apples and you need to do something with them before they go bad. That was me last week. They all just look so good sitting in those bins and I just couldn’t help it.
So I had a bag full of apples that I needed to do something with and I wanted to try an apple pie. I’m a pretty competent baker, but I’ve only made a handful of pies, so I wanted to gets some more practice. Then, I remembered that a few Christmases ago my grandma wrote down all our family’s favorite recipes and her apple pie was one of them. I was shocked I actually remembered I had this and was so excited to actually use it!
My grandma is the kind of baker (and cook) that kind of makes it up as she goes, so reading this recipe was interesting. When I got the recipes, I didn’t read each one word for word, so to use them was kind of funny. I could hear her voice telling me these things and I couldn’t help but laugh.
She is still alive and kicking in her mid 80s and feeding people is her expressive love language. I remember she thought I was crazy when I asked her to write her recipes down (because “Nobody wants that. I don’t even make anything any good!”), but I’m so glad she did it because I know I will always treasure these because it will be like I will always have a piece of her.
I don’t even think this recipe is unique to her. After all, I think there are only so many variations of apple pie and pie crust, but it’s how she does it, so it’s how I’ll do it. Below is her recipe with some changes I’ve added.
Pie Crust for Two Crust Pie
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup shortening (Grandma lives and dies by Crisco. I used cold butter. Sorry, Gram.)
Mix flour, salt and butter together until it makes resembles course meal.
Sprinkle with about 4 tablespoons water until mixture can be pressed into a ball. Use half for the top and half for the bottom of the pie.
Don’t forget to utilize your princess clad helper.
Part of the other reason I wanted to do a pie was to get to use my fancy Kitchenaid spiralizer. I got it for Christmas two years ago and have only ever used it for zucchini. This thing peels and slices and if I had to do all that by hand I definitely wouldn’t have made a pie.
Apple Pie
6-7 cups apples
3/4-1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Put apples in a bowl and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon to coat the apples evenly.
Stack apples in the pie. Next time I want to cut these circles in half. I thought they would layer well this way, but they didn’t.
Dot with butter (about 1 tablespoon) and cover with crust and bake until crust is nicely browned- about 1 hour at 400 degrees.
I attempted a lattice crust because I didn’t think I had enough dough to cover the top. It wasn’t pretty. Pretty pies are not as easy as they look and I’m no where near that. It didn’t help that I knew nap time was coming to an end and I was rushing just to get it done and in the oven while I could.
But, ya know what? For an ugly pie, it sure tasted pretty good! A scoop of vanilla ice cream on top and it was perfect!
Looking for more desserts? Check out Best Ever Pudding Cookies or this Dairy Free Pumpkin Bread for another fall treat.
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