Singing dancing bakers

Yesterday afterschool I decided to make the fam an apple pie. Partly because it sounded wonderfully yummy and partly because of my OCD. You I see I have this need to perfect my recipes...and until they are perfect (by my standards) I just keep making them.

Last year I found this super delicious Apple Pie recipe in a magazine. So I decided to make it... it ended up being too complicated and after four or five tries in a week and half...I gave up. Partly because I didn't want to peel another apple and partly because my family started to sicken at the site of apple pie- and we can't have that!!

Fast forward to this year- Thanksgiving to be specific. I offered to make dessert, pies- one apple one pumpkin. So I scoured the internet trying to find an easier apple pie recipe and ended up finding one! It was a great recipe and the pie was fine- its just that it didn't call for enough apples and my pie ended up being super thin...ughhh- nothing worse than a skinny pie!

So that is what spawned my apple pie baking lastnight.

Whenever I bake or cook in the kitchen- I always play music...my music by hooking my ipod up to the speaker. My Christmas music playlist was blaring through the house as I started peeling my granny greens. Pucca quickly came into the kitchen upon hearing the music...knowing full well that loud music=mom's baking. She decided to join me...she pulled out her playdough and cookie cutters and made some holiday cookies.

After running through my Christmas playlist we skipped down to the Disney playlist (all the songs from the Disney movies)...the recipe doesn't really take that long to do, but we kept stopping to dance and twirl to our favorite songs...and those little moments started adding up!

We finally finished the pie just as John got home...and stuck it oven! I LOVE the smell of apple pie...just heavenly!

It turned out fairly well... I think next time I'll add a little flour to the filling so its not so runny. Don't worry honey- it was sufficient and there will be no more apple pies this week!


Here's the recipe:

6 cups thinly sliced apples (I use granny smith or a mixture of GS and Braeburn)
3/4 c-1 c of white sugar (depends on if you use all GS or a combination...need more sugar for the GS apples)
1 tbs butter
1 tsp cinnamon
1 recipe for a 9 inch double crust pie ** or store bought pie crust

Prepare your pastry for a two crust pie. OR us a store bought pie crust (pkg of 2). Wipe, quarter, core, peel and slice apples; measuring 6 cups (I used 8 medium apples for a fuller pie)
Fill a bowl with 3 cups water and some lemon juice to keep apples from browning while preparing.

Drain apples from water mixture, add sugar and cinnamon- toss until fully coated.

Place apple sugar mixture in pastry lined pie plate. Top apple mixture with butter slices. Cover with top pie crust. (An idea for the venting is to use small cookie cutters...overlapping the cut out piece with the main crust or a simple circle in the middle- tons of creative ways!) Brush top crust with egg wash (one egg and a little warm water).

Place on lowest rack in oven preheated to 450 for 10 minutes. Then reduce temp to 350 and bake 30-35 minutes longer.


**EASY NO FAIL PIE CRUST

2 c. all purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 c. buttermilk
2/3 c. vegetable oil

Measure flour and salt. Add milk and oil. Stir only until dry ingredients are blended in. Divide dough in half. Roll each portion between 2 pieces of wax paper. Remove top layer of wax paper and transfer crust into pie plate with bottom wax paper still intact and on top. Remove wax paper from crust and shape edges as desired. Repeat with second portion of recipe. So easy and delicious.

NOTE: I like to chill my completed pie shell in freezer 1 to 2 hours before baking for extra crispness of a 1 crust pie. Yield: 1 double pie or 2 single pie shells.