My First Apple Pie

If you ask me which is my favorite pie, my answer is always Apple. I love, love apple pie. I recently told my husband that I could sit down with a glass of milk and polish off an entire pie by myself if its apple.  The sad truth is that I've never baked my own pie. I don't even own a pie plate so I went to the dollar store and bought one of those cheapy dollar aluminum pie plates to bake my pie in. Now, I think I will invest in a pie plate.  I think the problem is that I'm intimidated by making the pastry dough but looking around at all my food blogging friends, I felt encouraged to make my own pie for the Fourth of July. And I did just that. It was pretty easy, the hardest part was actually waiting for the pie to cool down.

Apple Pie
Yields: 1 9 inch pie

Pie crust
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
3 tablespoons granulated white sugar
1/4 cup vegetable shortening, cold
12 tablespoons butter, cold and cubed
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup ice water

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt and sugar. Add the shortening and break it up with your hands as you start to coat it all up with the flour. Add the cold butter cubes and work it into the flour with your hands or a pastry cutter. Work it quickly, so the butter doesn't get too soft, until the mixture is crumbly, like very coarse cornmeal. Add the ice water, a little at a time, until the mixture comes together forming a dough. Bring the dough together into a ball.

Divide the dough in half and flatten it slightly to form a disk shape. Wrap each disk in plastic and chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. On a floured surface roll each disk out into a 10 to 11-inch circle to make a 9-inch pie. This was actually not that easy to do!!

Apple Pie filling:
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling
Freshly ground nutmeg, to taste
7 medium apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced (I used Pink Lady apples)
1 lemon, zested and juiced
3 tablespoons butter, diced

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix together the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small bowl. In another bowl, sprinkle apples with the juice of 1 lemon and toss. Stir in the sugar mixture to evenly coat the apples.

Set aside. Roll out chilled dough into 2 circles and use 1 round to line a 9-inch pie pan. Chill the other round. Pour the apple and sugar mixture into the pie pan lined with dough. Dot with the cubed butter. Take your second pie crust round and lay it over the apple filling. Cut four slits on the top crust to allow for steam to escape through.

Trim the overhanging dough and crimp edges.  I had extra pie crust left over, so I used a flower shaped cookie cutter and made little flower garnishes. Bake pie for 35 -45 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Let rest 20 minutes before slicing. Serve with vanilla ice cream or not.

Sources:  Recipe slightly adapted from Paula Deen, the queen of pies!!!!!!!!