Classic apple pie is sure to please. I have never met anyone who disliked apple pie, have you? Fruit, sugar and a perfect pastry recipe… how can you go wrong? Whenever I need to share bad news with Michael, I know that, if I set out a pie and a fork, everything will be fine. No pie and no fork, it’s bound to be chaos.
When I was growing up, my parents had a large yellow transparent apple tree in their backyard. It was pretty good size too. Every year it produced hundreds of apples. There were more apples than we could ever use, yet we still tried. Dad always made the pie dough, and my sister and I would prep all the apples. This meant we peeled, cored and cut all the apples. Each year we made over 20 apple pies, and gave them away to family, friends and neighbors. It was hard work, but rewarding and fun.
It felt like the game Hot Potato sometimes. Apples only stay ripe for a short amount of time. You have to act fast and move, or they will go bad. It wasn’t so bad when the apples dropped on the ground and became mushy though. Dad would pay me a decent amount of money to scoop them up with a shovel and pile them into a wheelbarrow. When I was a kid, it felt like a fortune.
I was pretty upset last year when we missed the season. We headed to the beach, and when we came back the apples were all on the ground. Oh, I could have kicked myself! I was truly looking forward to all the homemade applesauce. Buying applesauce in the grocery store has not been the same as homemade from our kitchen. It’s also much more costly than when we make it for… almost free. We preserve about 30 jars of applesauce every year, and it’s divine!
This pie wasn’t from dad’s tree, but it was delicious none the less. All you need is a great pie crust recipe, some apples to toss inside, and a friend to share it with!
- 1 pie crust recipe
- 6 cups or 2 1/4 pounds thinly sliced and peeled cooking apples
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- Prepare your pastry dough. Roll out the top and bottom pastries. With one of the pastries, line the bottom of a 9 inch pie dish.
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.
- Place your peeled and cored apples in a large bowl, and sprinkle with lemon juice. Add sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg to the apples and gently toss, being careful not to break all of the apple slices.
- Pour apples to the pastry lined pie dish. Cut a hole, using a small biscuit cutter, into the pastry topper and carefully transfer to pie. Using a butter knife trim excess dough. Crimp edges of dough with a fork.
- Brush the pastry topper with milk and sprinkle with sugar. Cover the edges of your pie with foil to prevent them from getting over cooked. Bake for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and bake 20 minutes longer. Allow to cool on a wire rack before serving.
