Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Right to womanhood...

I think for men the "right to manhood" is usually when they get their first car.  For ladies, I think it is baking an apple pie.  As shocking as it may sound, I have never baked one from scratch on my own until this year (gasp).  

This fall some girlfriends and I went to Country Line Orchard, about 45 minutes outside of Chicago.  I figured if I was going to bake an apple pie from scratch I may as well pick the apples too.  My all time favorite apples are Honeycrisp and Pink Lady, but they were not in season at the time.  
I settled on Gala which would still be in my top 5.  I didn't want to bake with Granny Smith because I feel like EVERYONE uses granny smith in pies.  "They give it so much flavor" is what I always hear.  Well, personally I didn't want my pie to be super tart so I went with the more subtle Gala.  The picking was fine, but I was bored after about 5 minutes.  The selection was pretty picked over (no pun intended) so I had to really search for the good ones.  Luckily I am tall so I was able to grab some of the apples that were left up top.
After picking the apples we decided to go through the corn maze (again bored after 5 minutes).  Before going in the guy running the show told us that the maze was pretty muddy and if we didn't want to slip and fall or get dirty then we should buy booties.
Only two of us decided to buy them - yes, we looked like morons.
The worst part is that there was hardly any mud in the maze.  Maybe a small section that was easily jumpable for a full grown adult.  Next time I am risking it.  After all that fun it was time to actually bake the pie....  I used a recipe from momswhothink.com


Pie Crust Recipe
Makes two 9-inch pie crusts
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, chilled and diced
1/2 cup ice water
Directions:
1. Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl.
2. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
3. Stir in the ice water, a Tablespoon at a time, until the crust mixture forms a ball.


4. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
5. Sprinkle flour onto rolling surface. Roll dough out, then divide in half. Roll each half to fit a 9-inch pie plate.
6. Place crust in pie plate, pressing evenly into the bottom and sides.

Filling Ingredients:
8 cups sliced,peeled apples - about 3 lbs.  
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 Tablespoons butter
1 egg yolk
1 Tablespoon milk
Directions:
1. In a large bowl, toss the sliced apples with lemon juice.
2. Combine sugars, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg; add to apples and toss well to coat.
3. Fill pastry lined 9 inch pie pan with apple mixture. Dot with butter.
4. Place second crust on top of pie filling, cut slits in top of crust to vent. Seal the edges of the crust with a fork or by hand.  - I chose to lattice the top.
5. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolk and milk. Brush mixture over top crust.
6. Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes.
7. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake 40-45 minutes more or until crust is golden and filling is bubbly.
I forgot to brush with the egg mixture, then tried to do it last minute while it was baking.  That is why it looks kind of weird on top.  Regardless, this pie was AMAZING.  Couldn't get enough of it.  

enjoy!
j

1 comment:

  1. So fun! Loved this post; the adventures for apples, through the corn and into the kitchen, how fab! I'm still marinating on how you weaved the top of the pie so nicely.

    ps. Nice pie dish! ;-)

    Laura

    ReplyDelete