π

The way to someone's heart is through their stomach.

I know this better than anyone.

Last week, I noticed my good friend Miguel has a slight obsession with apple pie.

I took this as a challenge. 

First of all, I have never made pie before.

Second, I am always up for making people love me because of food.

So it happened.

Pie is surprisingly easy to make. The only issue is how time-consuming it is.

The first order of business is the crust.

I did a butter crust, which isn't very sweet, but is very flaky.

{My friends said this was the best part}

First combine your dry ingredients together in your food processor.

Then, add your cold butter, that is cut into chunks, into your food processor and pulse until the texture is like breadcrumbs.

Then add your water one Tablespoon at a time. I only used about three Tablespoons to get it to a nice consistency-doughy but still crumbly.

[I love this picture. Self timer rocks]

Now, flour your surface and pound your dough out with the heel of your hand.

What this does is take the fat (butter) and flour and layer it so you have a nice flaky crust.

You don't want to work it too much with your hands because this will melt the butter and your crust will suck.

Divide the dough in half, wrap it in plastic and chill for at least an hour, and up to 2 days.

Now onto the apples. 

{This is time consuming.}

[Hi Mom <3]

Peel all seven of your apples-it's helpful to have an assistant

Then slice them.

Aw yeah

That's a lot of apples. 

You'll want to store them in a bowl with some lemon juice or, even better, apple juice, so that they don't brown.

Then mix up your flour sugar cinnamon and nutmeg and coat your apples with this and 3 Tablespoons of lemon (or apple!) juice.

Take out your pie crust, let it sit for 5-10 minutes, and then roll it out and place it in your pie pan.

I had enough apples and pie crust with these recipes to make two pies- but not enough to cover each pie with crust.

Put your apple mixture in the pie and cover with more crust or with a streusel topping-brown sugar, flour, and butter.

And you're done! This took me a total of about three hours. Oh man.

Butter Crust

From SimplyRecipes

2 1/2 cup All-Purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 cup unsalted butter-very cold, in cubes

3-8 Tablespoons ice water

Combine flour salt and sugar in food processor. Add butter and pulse until it resembles breadcrumbs, with pea-sized chunks of butter.

Add ice water one Tablespoon at a time until it just begins to clump.

For a flaky crust, pound dough with heel of hand.

Shape into 2 discs, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least one hour. Dough can be kept for up to two days.

Let sit at room temperature 5-10 minutes before working with again.

Apple Pie Filling

Very slightly adapted from Paula Deen

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 c All-Purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Nutmeg, to taste

7 medium apples (I used Granny Smith) peeled, cored, thinly sliced

3 Tablespoons lemon or apple juice

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F

Mix flour, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg together in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, toss apples with juice, until coated with little at the bottom of the bowl.

Stir in sugar mixture to evenly coat the apples.

Roll out crust and line a 9-inch pan.

Put apple mixture in pie in mounds and cover with crust.

Brush crust with egg wash for an appealing brown color.

Bake for 45 minutes. Pie should be soupy. Let sit for 20 minutes, or until filling firms up.

Leave any comments down below, and I always take suggestions for next time!

xoxo

Emily