Since it’s Apple Season – Homemade Apple Pie

I looked back among all of my posts and discovered I’ve never posted about making an apple pie.  I’m not surprised as there are probably a million apple pie recipes out there, so why add another one?  I’ll tell you why.  Firstly, because I made one for Sunday Dinner this week; secondly and more importantly there’s a really good story to go with the apple pie and how it helped me woo Cheryl.

It was about six years ago around this time of year Cheryl and I started dating each other and my father had sent down a large box of Macintosh apples.  What do I do with apples, make apple pie.

The night I made this particular apple pie I received a phone call from Cheryl asking what I was up to. “Baking an apple pie,” was my response.  She didn’t believe me.  Again this was very early in our relationship and while we’d known each other before (we met playing on the same co-ed soccer team) she didn’t know about the cooking side of me so it took some convincing on my part before she accepted that I actually was at home making an apple pie.

A few nights later I get another phone call from my future wife.  She was on her way home from a happy hour and wanted to stop by for some of my apple pie.  In other words, she was using the excuse of verifying the apple pie in order to make a booty call.  To this day she maintains this was not the case at all, she was hungry from happy hour and just wanted pie.  Uh huh.  Regardless of the motive, she was duly impressed with my apple pie.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Feel free to use one of those pre-fab pie shells from the grocery store if you don’t have a rolling pin but trust me, once you make the dough from scratch and see how easy it is and how flaky the crust is you’ll never want to use the pre-fab stuff again.  I prefer Macintosh or Granny Smith apples as I like a tarter pie but Gala apples or Honey Crisps make for nice sweet pie.  If you use butter in the dough you don’t need to use all 4 oz of water, 2-3 oz will suffice since butter has some water in it and you’re using a couple of sticks.

Homemade Apple Pie

• 3-2-1 pie dough (12 oz flour-8 oz butter-4 oz water + pinch of salt)
• 6-8 large apples, peeled and cored
• ¾ C sugar
• 1 ½ Tbs lemon juice
• ¼ C flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 Tbs butter, thinly sliced
• 1Tbs heavy cream + granulated sugar

Mix the butter and the flour together until pea sized balls form, add the water, and form into two dough balls.  Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 30-45 minutes.

Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to 400°F.

Cut the apples into ½ – ¾” wedges.

Add sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, and flour to apples and toss to coat well.  Set aside.

Next, take out one ball and roll it out the dough into a round big enough for a 9 – 9 ½ inch pie plate.  Leave the other one in the refrigerator.

Put the bottom into a pie plate.  Pour apple mixture into pie shell.  Dot the top with the thinly sliced butter.

Take the other dough ball out of the refrigerator and roll out.  Place on top, trim any excess dough, and crimp the edges together.  Poke holes in the top with a fork or knife tip.

Brush with the cream, sprinkle sugar on top.

Cover the edges of the pie with aluminum foil, place pie in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.  Remove aluminum foil and bake for another 20-25 minutes.

Allow to cool on a rack before serving.

Serve with some really nice sharp cheddar cheese or if you must…vanilla ice cream.