Homemade Apple Pie…filling

Okay so the filling is homemade, but I long ago gave up on making my own pie crusts, why get myself all frustrated and pissed off when I don’t have to?  Maybe I’ll have it figured out by the time I’m a grandma!  This is Tyler’s second favorite pie (blueberry is his most favorite) and I use his mom’s recipe, which is pretty basic but very delicious!  I took some pictures of the different steps for once to share with you.

not so secret ingredient

I am horrible at peeling whole apples, so I use my apple slicer to slice them into wedges and then peel them from there, fast and *almost* foolproof.

toss in the dry ingredients

lalalalala stir it up….

begin the assembling process!  Butter on top of the apples, don’t forget to do this before you add the top crust (I almost always forget!)

time to up the cute factor, courtesy of Pampered Chef!

lookin good…

whoops, probably should of put the apple cut outs closer to the center…

brushed the top with a bit of milk

ready for baking!  I have this nifty Pampered Chef crust guard I use, it lines up well with my deep dish Pampered Chef pie plate

The finished product, hot and fresh from the oven!

Homemade Apple Pie (family recipe)

Ingredients:

2 nine inch pie crusts
6 cups peeled and sliced granny smith apples
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup flour
dash of salt
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t cinnamon
2 T butter

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2.  Combine apples, and all ingredients except for the butter in a large bowl, stir until apples are coated.
3.  Place first pie crust in the bottom of the pie plate
4.  Add filling.
5.  Cut butter into small piece and sprinkle across the top of the filling.
6.  Place top crust and seal edges.
7.  Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees, then 35-45 minutes at 350 degrees.
8.  Let cool, then eat!  (with ice cream unless you are a weirdo like my husband!)

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Fresh Strawberry Pie

For our third anniversary I made Tyler one of his (and my) favorite desserts: a fresh strawberry pie.  It could of used a few more strawberries but we ate it so fast there was really no time to complain!  This would be a great easy recipe for 4th of July, served with cool whip or vanilla ice cream!

Fresh Strawberry Pie

1  graham cracker crust or pre-baked pastry pie crust
2 lbs (approx 4 cups) ripe strawberries washed and sliced
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup water
3 Tablespoons cornstarch

Crush 1 cup of fresh strawberries and cook on stovetop with 1 cup of
water until it boils for about 2 minutes.  Sieve (put a strainer over
a bowl so you can save all the juice and toss the strawberry pieces).
Combine 3/4 cup of suger and 3 T cornstarch and stir it into the berry
juice.  Cook and stir juice/sugar/starch combo over medium heat until
it thickens.  Place 1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries in the bottom of the
pie crust and pour half of the sauce over top, layer another 1 1/2
cups of strawberries over that and top with the remaining sauce.  Let
chill in the fridge for a couple of hours, serve with cool whip and
enjoy!

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TWD: Double Crusted Blueberry Pie

I was happy to see that blueberry pie was the chosen recipe for this week. Around the 4th of July the grocery stores around here are PACKED with fresh blueberries and they are usually on sale too. I attribute it to the flag cake phenomena. Everyone makes flag cakes for the 4th of July, either in jello or with actual cake. I stocked up on blueberries and raspberries over the last week or so and froze many of them for later use. I guess I should thank the flag cake craze that will not die for the great deals on fruit! I set out to make this pie with a bit of anxiety since, you know, it involves making a pie crust from scratch. Me and pie crusts do not have a good track record. I usually end up throwing things and cursing, a lot. Then I go out and buy pre-made crusts and get on with it. This time I had the pre-made crusts in the freezer, waiting for me in case of disaster, but I was hopeful that I would not need them.

Sure enough, they are still in the freezer and I actually had a bit of success with Dorie’s crust recipe! I don’t have a large food processor (don’t really have room for one in our tiny kitchen but someday hopefully) so I used my pastry blender to make the dough. From looking at other people’s pictures of their dough I don’t think I blended mine enough, or maybe I didn’t add enough water? There were still some big, visible chunks of butter in it and the dough was kinda crumbling, especially around the edges. I rolled it out quickly, between pieces of saran wrap (this is where I’ve gone wrong before, when the dough gets warm and sticky) and plopped it in the pie pan. I didn’t roll it out enough for there to be much dough hanging over, so I didn’t really get to do the whole crimp the crust thing, but I sealed it the best I could and only a little blueberry juice seeped out during baking. I learned from my mistake with the cobbler to put the pie plate on a cookie sheet like Dorie says!

End result? A fantastic pie! I loved the crust (always my favorite part of a pie), and the blueberry with a hint of lemon filling was delicious. The real test was what Tyler thought, and he took one bite and rated it a 9, although he said it is not AS good as his mom’s blueberry pie recipe (I guess that one gets a 9.5?) I preferred this pie dough recipe to others I’ve tried, even though it does contain the evil that is shortening. I overlooked that since it was easier to roll out than other crusts I’ve attempted. I will use this crust again (maybe on a peach pie since those are coming into season now!) and blend it longer and with more water in hopes it is not so crumbly.

Thanks to Amy for selecting this recipe. Head on over to her blog to view the recipe and check out the blogroll to see what other TWD bloggers thought of Dorie’s blueberry pie!

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