Last year I got a recipe book that belonged to my Mimi, a very well loved Betty Crocker’s Cookbook.  When I was leafing through the book a recipe fell out for apple pie.  No regular apple pie, according to the article (a cut-out from Family Circle) it is the “Best of the Best”.  I have adopted this as my standard apple pie recipe.  Above is a picture of the first time I made the apple pie, so beautiful!

As for the apples, I’m not exactly sure what type of apple is a good “baking apple”.  I’m very spoiled by the orchard at my parent’s house, we usually get several large bags of apples from the hundreds-thousands they pick every year.  I only know which ones to bake with after my mom separates them for me and instructs me on what to do with them.  Since I don’t have any apples from my parents yet, I went to the store and bought the cheapest apples I could find to bake with today.

 Ingredients:

– 2 1/2 pounds of apples peeled, cored, and sliced very thin.

– 1/3 C firmly packed light brown sugar

– 1/3 C granulated sugar

– 2 Tbsp flour

– 1 tsp ground cinnamon

– 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

– 1/4 tsp salt

– 1 pkg pie crust mix

– 2 Tbsp butter

– water or milk

– sugar for sprinkling

Directions:

1. Place apples in a large bowl, mix sugars, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.  Gently toss to cover apples and let sit for 10 minutes until a juice forms.
2. Prepare pie crust according to directions and roll into 2-12’ rounds.
3. Pour apple mixture into pastry and dot with butter.  Moisten bottom edge of pastry with water and cover with other pastry round.  Pinch edges to seal and cut slits into top.
4. For crispy top brush with milk or water and sprinkle lightly with sugar.
5. Bake in oven at 425 F for 40 minutes.

So you may notice that a few of the slits on this pie are extra wide…that would be because I forgot to dot with butter and had to sneak it through the slits after it was in the oven for about 5 minutes…oops!

I have found that the pre-made pie crusts are just as good tasting as homemade, so I definitely go with store bought to save time and effort.  I have also found that it is worth it to buy the name brand, such as Pillsbury.  It seems to get a nicer golden hue when baked compared to the generic brands.  I used a generic today completely on accident, note the lack of awesome hue in the crust compared to the first image of this blog.