Dear Jesus..

Thank you for giving me the gift of  baking!!

X&O

-Courtney

For a while now I've been wanting to bake a pie, not just any pie but an apple pie. Completely. From. Scratch. I've never got around to buying a pie pan, call it laziness or lack of "pie pan" money. So I went to my parents house yesterday and dug through their cabinets. I came across FOUR!! Now considering that my mom doesn't bake(no offense mom) I was shocked to find four of them. I decided to take two, cause I figured she won't be baking a pie any time soon.  Any who, I woke up this morning REALLY wanted to bake a pie but unfortunately I didn't have any apples :( On the bright side, my friend Lisa was going to be coming over today with her daughter. SO, I did what any normal desperate stay-at-home mom would do who doesn't have a car, I text her and asked her to pick up some granny smith apples for me. And she happily obliged. 

So now on to the good stuff. I started with making a pie crust. Duh, what else would I start with. It was pretty dang easy. 3 cups of flour, 1/2 cup (one stick) butter cubed, 1/2 cup shortening, 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt, Combine all that with pastry cutter or a fork. Add cold water a tablespoon at a time just until the dough comes together. Then put in refrigerator and chill for at least 30 minutes. Mean while, peel, core, and slice apples into 1/4 inch slices. Then melt a stick of butter(half cup) in a small sauce pan, add three tablespoons of flour, stir until well mixed. Then add, half cup of white sugar, half cup brown sugar, 1 tablespoon of vanilla, 3 tablespoons of water, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg. Mix it well, bring to a boil. Then just turn off the burner. 

Now back to the crust. Take it out of the fridge, and divid it in two equal parts. Starting with one ball of dough, roll it out on a floured surface until it's just bigger than your pie dish, roll it on to your rolling pin and transfer it to your pie pan. be sure that it is big enough to fold over the edge just a little bit, cut off any excess. The put that in the fridge. Now roll out the other ball of dough, lay it on a flat surface or on i pie pan that has been turned upside down and stick that in the fridge. 

Now take a break to eat a snack, grab a drink, watch your favorite tv show, or whatever you feel like doing to kill about 20 minutes. Then back to the kitchen. First take out the second pie crust we rolled out.  Lay it out on your cutting board (or counter) and cut into 1/4 inch(can be wider depending on how you want your pie to look) wide stripes.  Now with your apples in a large bowl add the syrupy mixture and stir to coat all the apples.  (Btw did I mention I used about 3 pounds of apples to start with) Then get your other pie crust out of the fridge and dump all your apples in the crust. Then put on your lattice crust top (here's a video of how to make the lattice crust)

It should look something like this^ Then fold under the edges and crimp the edge of the pie (video on how to here) You will want to cover the edge with tin foil so it doesn't over cook. Then bake it in a preheated 425 degree oven for 15 minutes, When that 15 minutes is up reduce your oven temperature to 350 and bake for 35-45 minutes. the last 10 minutes, I paused the timer and took the pie out on the oven and brushed the entire top crust with a mixture of dark corn syrup, butter, and a little bit of hot water. Then sprinkled a cinnamon and white sugar mixture over the top. I put it back in the oven and let the timer finish the last 10 minutes. It is now sitting on a cooling rack on my counter. Tempting me to cut into it.

Anyway I can't WAIT until it cools. It looks and smells delicious!!

Recipe for the original pie was found here.