Apple Pie!

I had a different post planned for today, but then I went to my mom's house and made an apple pie with her today so all plans changed.  On my way home I stopped off to get a bag of Jonathon apples and a box of crust mix so I could have my own pie.  This is the first time I have made an apple pie without my parents.  Crust is not my friend, so it doesn't look pretty.  You have been warned.

Mom's Perfect Apple Pie
recipe from Betty Crocker Pie & Pastry Cookbook
for a 10 inch pie

• 10-ish Jonathon apples, peeled, cored, & sliced thinly
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/3 cup flour
• 2/3-1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• dash of salt
• 2 crusts

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Peel, core, and slice the apples.

3. Taste an apple slice to see how tart/sweet they are.  If they are sweeter use 2/3 cup sugar instead of the full cup.

4. Mix together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, & salt.

5. Make your bottom crust and lay it in your pie pan.

6. Sprinkle a layer of the flour mixture on the bottom of the crust.

7. Put down 1 layer of apples & sprinkle more of the flour mixture on them.  Continue until the pie pan is filled (go a little higher than the pan because it'll sink down).

8. Sprinkle the last of the flour mixture on the top layer and dot it with the butter.

9. Make your top crust and lay it on top of the pie.

10. Go around the crust and make the pretty edging.

11. Add vent holes evenly around the pie.

12. Sprinkle cinnamon around the top of the crust for prettiness.

13. Bake for 40-50 minutes until the crust is browned and the juice is bubbling.  (I took mine out after 30 minutes)

We recently got a really, really cool thing called a Victorio Apple Peeler.  It made prepping the apples a BREEZE.  I took a video on my phone.  It is so cool!  I can't wait for our upcoming apple canning weekend because it will be so much easier now!

Here they are all ready to go:

Here is the crust mix my mom always uses:

Not pictured is the rolling out process aka my nemesis.

Mix up the flour mixture:

Sprinkle it on the crust:

Lay your apples.  It is imperative to do it super OCD-like like I do.

Sprinkle more of the mixture:

And keep doing that:

Start breaking apple slices into little bits that you can sneak into tiny spaces to made this as solidly apple-filled as you can.  This helps stop the pie filling from sinking far below the crust during cooking.

 When you are done dot the top of the pie with butter:

Lay on your badly rolled out pie crust:

Turn up the excess:

Do the pretty edging which is hard for me for some reason and then use a sharp knife to put in vent holes.  It's more fun if you make a picture or put letters in as vents:

Voila!  The first Crafty Homestead apple pie!

I'm sorry mom, but it was the best apple pie I've ever had in my life!