October 18th, 2014

The making of apple pie

I love pie, but I really don’t make it enough. The problem is the amount of food. My husband and I shouldn’t eat a whole pie (I almost said “couldn’t” but then I realized that wasn’t true), and it’s also not enough to share with my coworkers (I double my cookie and cake/cupcake recipes for work). Having people over is pretty much the perfect time.

This morning when we went to do yard work, we saw that apples had grown in on our apple tree! Today also happens to be when we’re hosting a football watching party, so it was the perfect time to make some apple pie 🙂 This is a recipe my mom has been using for several years, with a few modifications by me.

The first thing I make is the dough because it needs to be refrigerated for at least an hour before it’s used. Homemade dough may seem intimidating, but it’s actually quite easy and uses very little ingredients.

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When it comes to cookies, cakes, and frosting, you usually start with room temperature butter because it allows more air to be beaten in. For pies and tarts, you typically use cold butter, and it’s easier to use when cut into smaller pieces and slowly added into the mix. My mom does this part by hand, but I like using my stand mixer with a flat beater. (A large food processor would work as well.)

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The dough starts pretty course and dry. It only has flour, sugar, salt, and butter at this point.

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But add in the egg yolks, cold water, and vanilla, and it turns into this! After this, it’s wrapped in saran wrap and put in the refrigerator.

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A few hours later, I start on the filling. These are the apples from our tree that I picked this morning 😀 I actually don’t know what kind they are since it was the previous owners of this house that planted the tree.

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Unfortunately, this is the most annoying part since I have to peel and cut the apples.

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A tip for cutting apples for apple pie! Cut them into flat pieces, so that you can pile more of them inside the pie.

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The next part is the best part (other than eating it later) – cooking the apples with sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cornstarch, and lemon juice. If you were trying to trick yourself into thinking apple pie is healthy because it has fruit, you might want to rethink it after seeing how much sugar there is.

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After about 10 minutes, it looks like this, and yes, it smells as amazing as it looks. This cooks out some of the juices from the apples. I add most of it back into the pie, but too much might make the pie watery.

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Half of the pie dough is rolled out and brushed with egg white.

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Which is then filled with apple filling goodness and dotted with butter.

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You can get pie crust cutters to make pretty designs, but I just do the old fashion way of cutting slits into it to vent out the steam. I forgot to take a photo after this, but here’s another tip! If you line the edges with aluminum foil and bake it like that for half of the time, it will prevent the edges from browning too much.

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Tada! PIE!!! 😀

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Here is the recipe. Feel free to give it a try or link back to it, but please don’t copy and paste it onto another site 🙂

Crust:

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
  • 1/4 teaspon salt
  • 1 2/3 sticks butter, cut into small pieces
  • 2 egg yolks (save the egg white for later)
  • 4 tablespoons cold water
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
  1. Mix together flour, sugar, and salt. You can use a food processor or stand mixer with flat beater.
  2. Add butter until the mixture resembles a course meal.
  3. Add egg yolks, cold water, and vanilla and mix until the dough just comes together at the sides of the bowl.
  4. Wrap dough in saran wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Filling:

  • 1 egg white, lightly beaten
  • apples pealed and cut – about 6 cups
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1-2 tablespoot butter, cut into small pieces
  1. Preheat oven to 450F.
  2. Cook apples, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon juice over the stove on low heat for about 10 minutes to let out some of the apples’ juices.
  3. Roll half of the dough to fit a 9-inch pie plate.
  4. Drape the dough onto the plate, leaving a bit overhang.
  5. Brush dough with egg white.
  6. Add pie filling, some of the juices, and then dot with pieces of butter.
  7. Roll out the remaining pie dough.
  8. Moisten the bottom crust with water, and then cover with the top crust. Roll up the edges.
  9. Cut six 2-inch slits evenly around the top of the pie to let steam escape.
  10. Brush the top crust with egg white.
  11. Wrap aluminum foil around the edges of the pie to prevent the edges from browning too much.
  12. Change oven temperature to 350F, and bake pie for 30 minutes.
  13. Remove aluminum foil, and bake another 30 minutes.
  14. Recommendation: after baking is done, let pie cool for 20-30 minutes before serving.

14 Responses to “The making of apple pie”

  • Nancy says:

    What makes your apple pie 129471x more awesome is the fresh apple picked from your tree in the yard! There’s nothing like fresh organic fruits :9. I didn’t know there was a difference between cold and room temperature butter with regards to the outcome of the food; but it’s really really useful to know to make the baked goods right *o*.

    We have the same apple at my house too! The small apple that with that kind of sandy-ish texture?

    Your apple pie looks AMAZING! I swear, you can become a billionaire if you mass produce your apple pies! And other pies too ;P. Thanks for sharing!

  • Tara says:

    Oh, yum! I’ve never considered making apple pie by cutting the apples flat. I’m so used to seeing them in bigger chunks, but the flatter version makes so much sense! And like Nancy said, it looks so good! I’m not a big fan of apple pies, but yours I’d definitely be a fan of!

  • Carolynne says:

    Oh it looks so pretty! If I liked cooked apples, I am sure I would die to try your special apple pie!! Thanks for sharing.

  • Angel says:

    This looks sooo tasty! I love pie too. Or let’s just say I LOVE FOOD. Lol! That’s my problem, I need to stop liking food. I’m seeing a lot of serious chefs online right now. If you lived near me, I’d pay you to cook for me. Haha.

  • Tess says:

    Oh my goodness I LOVE apple pie!! One of my favorite and like you, we hardly eat pies. And it is around this time that pies are upon us.

    I hate peeling apples too.. I find whenever I am planning to make pie, its a two day process. The first day is for peeling. The rest is pretty easy after that.

    Mmmmm I hope it was as tasty as it looks!!

  • Jenny says:

    I was never a fan of pie, but maybe it’s because all the store-bought ones are ridiculously sweet -_- I would love to try making my own pie one day, but boy it sounds like quite a bit of work D: Your pie looks delicious though!

  • Alice B says:

    apple pie is an amazing dessert, a superb comfort food! sadly, my mother never baked one and now she doesn’t bake anymore due to working schedule. i can’t nag her to do it either 😛

    hence i always have to outside whenever i want apple pie. there’s not much restaurant who serves apple pies either, surprisingly, and i don’t understand why. maybe because not a lot of people in indonesia like apple pies? who knows. if i ever did bake my own apple pie in the future, i’d love to put some crumbles on top for addition. crumbled apple pie is the best :3

  • Uglyfish says:

    That pie looks brilliant! I’m terrible at cooking or baking, but I’d love to give apple pie a try, and this recipe looks great! Cutting the apples flat so you can stack them is a great idea! I know if I’d have tried this I’ve had just cut them into chunks and threw them into the pie. I hope you had just as much fun eating it as you did making it!

  • Ongaku says:

    Wow, cooking a pie from scratch. It’s tough work! I have only done it once and it wasn’t alone and I never felt like I had the energy to do it again. orz That looks so yummy though! I’m seeing all these food posts and it is making me go crazy since I’m on a diet to get my health back in check.

  • Jessica says:

    Wow, I wish I read this before trying to make my own mini apple pies last night… The crust turned out super hard, I’m going to follow this recipe this weekend! 🙂 Thanks!

  • Joy says:

    it looks so good! Do you think the crust would be good to make a tart? Thanks for the recipe!

    • Cat says:

      I think the crust would be good for tarts too! I don’t think we have pink lady apples though. Their colors don’t seem to be as bright as they are. I really should figure out what kind we have, haha.

  • Joy says:

    Also, are those pink lady apples?

  • Holly says:

    This looks delicious. 😛 I love the fact you used the apples from your garden, making it completely homemade.

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