September…Autumn…and Apple Pie

Autumn arose and my soul bloomed

-Angie Wetland-Crosby

Hello, sweet friends…

HAPPY AUTUMN!!!

Autumn is a beautiful time of year…my summer garden is in transition

It’s a time to enjoy what God has given us…the seasons

A celebration of the changing of the leaves…

to celebrate the harvest…gratitude

Autumn is a time to reflect…

to find balance in our lives…

perhaps more than ever Autumn is a time of looking forward to what’s just around the corner…

The trees are changing…

and so are we…

We are not the same people we were a year ago…

May you enjoy this wonderful season….celebrating it’s sounds…sights…and scents in full abundance.

speaking of scents…

What’s Cooking?

This Apple Pie is a treasure of a recipe & the perfect dessert to welcome the Fall. The filling was adapted slightly from the famous Grandma Ople apple pie. The method for this filling is surprising but it will win you over. It’s well worth the extra 5 minutes and you’ll never want canned apple pie filling again.

Apple Pie

Ingredients

*1 pie crust (recipe below)

2 1/4 lbs Granny Smith Apples peeled, cored  6-7 apples (7 cups thinly sliced)

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

8 Tbsp unsalted butter

3 Tbsp  all purpose flour

1/4 cup water

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg + 1 Tbsp water, for egg wash

Instructions

*Make the pie crust recipe and chill per instructions while preparing the filling. Preheat oven to 425˚F.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in 3 Tbsp flour then simmer for 1 minute, whisking constantly. Whisk in 1/4 cup water, 1 cup sugar and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and continue simmering 3 minutes, whisking frequently then remove from heat.

Peel, remove cores and thinly slice 7 cups of apples and place them in a large bowl. Sprinkle the top with 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon and toss to combine. Pour the sauce over the apples and stir to coat the apple slices.

Sprinkle your work surface with flour and roll out bottom pie crust to a 12″ diameter circle. Wrap it around your rolling pin to transfer it to the 9” pie plate. Add apple mixture, mounding slightly in the center and being careful not to get the filling on the edges which would make it difficult to seal.

Roll second crust into an 11″ round and cut into 10 even thickness strips using a pizza cutter Arrange strips in a woven lattice pattern over the top (see video tutorial). Beat together 1 egg and 1 Tbsp water and brush the top with egg mixture. 

Bake at 425˚F for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350˚F and continue baking another 45 minutes or until apples are soft and filling is bubbling through the vents. Rest at room temp 1 hour before serving.

*Pie Crust

It doesn’t get any easier than this and you probably already have everything you need to make homemade pie dough: Flour, sugar, salt, butter and water. The butter should be chilled straight out of the fridge so you don’t have to plan ahead to make pie dough.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus more to dust, measured correctly

1/2 Tbsp granulated sugar

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 lb COLD unsalted butter(2 sticks) diced into 1/4″ pieces

6 Tbsp ice water (6 to 7 Tbsp)

Instructions

Place flour, sugar and salt into the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to combine.

Add cold diced butter and pulse the mixture until coarse crumbs form with some pea-sized pieces then stop mixing. Mixture should remain dry and powdery. 

Add 6 Tbsp ice water and pulse just until moist clumps or small balls form. Press a piece of dough between your finger tips and if the dough sticks together, you have added enough water. If not, add more water a teaspoon full at a time. Be careful not to add too much water or the dough will be sticky and difficult to roll out.

Transfer dough to a clean work surface, and gather dough together into a ball (it should not be smooth and DO NOT knead the dough). Divide dough in half and flatten to form 2 disks. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour before using in recipes that call for pie crust.