Originally posted on October 22, 2005.

As as easy as it is to make homemade apple pie I still wonder why people buy a can of filling off the shelf.. It’s easy to make, and the ingredients are pretty simple. The pie crust (click here for pie crust recipe) is the only real work.

This recipe cost a little more to make since I used mostly organic ingredients and apples. It can probably be made quite a bit cheaper if you buy your ingredients at your local major chain supermarket.

Basic Apple Pie Filling Instructions:

1. Peel and cut apples into ¼ inch slices.
2. Drizzle 1 – 2 ounces of lemon juice over apple slices in a bowl and toss to mix.
3. Combine granulated sugar, light brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice.
4. Pour mixture over the apple slices and toss to mix.
5. Dump apple mixture into pie crust in a 9 inch pie pan.
6. Cut 2 ounces of butter (¼ of a stick) into small chunks and add to pie filling.
7. Cover the pie with the top crust and crimp or flute edges, then make some small cuts in top.
8. Bake at 425° for 40 minutes, until golden brown and filling bubbles out a little.

Now onto the pictures for the rest!

Our basic ingredients are apples, white and light brown sugar, a small amount of flour, a lemon, butter, and some ground cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice.

I also added several drops (not too much) of vanilla over the filling before covering with the top crust.

Peel the skin off the apples, quarter, cut out the core and stems, and slice into ¼ inch slices.

Combine the 2/3 cup granulated sugar, ½ cup light brown sugar, 3 tbsp flour, 1 tsp cinnamon, dash of nutmeg and allspice in a bowl. Stir it up well, then put it in the mixing cup for use shortly.

Put the apple slices into a mixing bowl and drizzle the 1 – 2 tbsp of lemon juice over them. Then toss to coat the slices.

Note: I used a fresh lemon for this (watch the seeds!), but you could use lemon juice you can buy in those little lemon shaped bottles the stock in the produce department too..

Now add the sugar, flour, spice mixture to the apple slices. Sprinkle it over them and toss a bit again so all of the apple slices are coated well.

You can see here that all of the apple slices are coated with the sugar mixture.. mMmm.

Add the sugared up apple slices to the pie crust in a 9 inch pie pan.

Cut 2 tbsp of butter (¼ of a stick) into chunks and place them around on the top of the filling.

Finally cover the pie with the top crust and crimp or flute the edges so it’s closed up nice. Also remember to cut some small slices in the top for venting (Don’t forget this step!).

Place the pie in the center of your preheated oven and bake at 425° for 40 minutes. Peek in on it 5 or 10 minutes before the end, it should be golden brown when done.

Note 1: It’s a good idea to place a cookie sheet or sheet pan on another rack below the pie to catch any sugar mixture/syrup that may drip down. This is a common thing, so use a sheet pan if you have one so you won’t have to clean the bottom of your oven tomorrow.

Note 2: My oven is gas, but if yours is an electric oven (with a big hot heating element up top) you might want to cover the edges of the crust with some aluminum foil for all but the last 10 minutes of cooking so the edges don’t burn..

And finally it’s done! Place on a cooling rack and cover with a dish towel for 30 minutes or an hour to cool before cutting into it, and it’s ready to eat!

Originally posted on October 16, 2005.

I used to use this pie crust stuff that came in sticks (sorta like butter sticks), but I like homemade stuff since there’s no preservatives and junk in it since I don’t use any and my stuff doesn’t have to sit in a warehouse or store for weeks or months.

The ingredients are very simple using just all-purpose flour, salt, shortening and a little butter, and a small amount of water. It’s not hard to make if you take your time and should make a nice flaky crust.

Basic Instructions:

1. Sift 2 ½ cups of flour into a mixing bowl.
2. Add 3/4 of a cup of shortening and 1 tbsp of butter to flour in small chunks.
3. Cut the shortening and butter into flour with a form or pastry blender till crumbly.
4. Mix in the 6 – 7 tbsp of water 1 tbsp at a time, mixing dough with fork between each.
5. Form dough into a ball.
6. Cut dough into 2 pieces and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
7. After letting rest on counter for 15 minutes roll crust out between 2 sheets of wax paper.
8. Place dough into pan and flute edges if desired.

Now onto the pictures for the rest!

Our basic ingredients are all-purpose flour, salt, shortening, a little butter and some water.

After sifting the flour (optional) into a mixing bowl add in the shortening and butter.

Cut the shortening and butter into the flour with a fork (or a pastry blender, if you have one).

Add the 6 – 7 tbsp of water in one tbsp at a time, mixing the dough after adding each..

When you are done it should be lumpy and should stick together a little when you try to ball it up.

Form the dough into a ball with your hands.

Here we have a nice pie crust dough ball, woo.

Cut the dough ball in two, forming each into a smaller and flatter ball. Then wrap them each in plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator to rest for 30 minutes or so.. This resting period is a good opportunity to get whatever filling you’ll be using ready.

Place a sheet of wax paper on your board, lightly dust it with flour, then place the dough onto it. Then very lightly dust it with flour and place another sheet of wax paper on top of that.

Then roll out the crust to about 11 inches. You want it to be a couple of inches larger than the pan you’ll be using (my pie pan is 9 ½ inches) to allow for the walls and some crimping or fluting of the edges..

Note: Although you could roll out the crust without the wax paper, I would not recommend it.

I set the pie pan I had chilled in the fridge over the rolled out crust to make sure the crust was an inch or two bigger than the pan.

You will need the extra crust to account for the walls of the pan and some extra for the crust, and “fluting” if you want the nifty fluted edges, and I do.

I turned the crust over onto the pie pan (having the wax paper on the bottom still makes it a little easier). Yes, this can be a slight challenge. Lift the edge of the crust and lightly press the dough down into the pan, and go easy to avoid tearing it any more than you need to..

I then lightly pressed the crust down into the pie pan, and then “fluted” the edges a little.. Since it’s unlikely (unless you’re Betty Crocker) that your rolling job produced a perfectly circular pie crust you can just tear a little of the extra off some edges to “patch” the areas that are lacking. Then you can use your first, index and middle fingers and thumb to flute the edges. You could just fold it over and crimp it a little, but the fluted thing looks a little cooler.