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My Famous Homemade Apple Pie
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I made a couple of pies last year. They were different versions of my apple pie recipe, and now I am the unofficial pie maker in my family. That honor used to belong to my father-in-law, but after I decided to make a pie for Thanksgiving last year, that honor and duty is now mine. I love it!! I love to bake, and I take pride in my homemade apple pies. Everything is from scratch, but if you want to skip making the crust, go ahead and buy a premade crust. I promise I won't tell.
I will include all parts of the recipe, including the different variations of the recipe that I have made. I do hope that you will love these as much as I do.
Total Cook Time
Double Crust Ingredients
- 3 Cups Flour, sifted
- 1 Cup Shortening
- 9-12 Tbs Cold Water
- 1 tsp Salt
- pinch cinnamon
- pinch nutmeg
Instructions for Preparing Crust
- * For single crust pie (Dutch apple/crumb topping), cut this crust recipe in half
- Sift the flour into a bowl and stir together flour, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Using a pastry blender, or your hands (I prefer to use my hands), cut in the shortening until combined, and small, pea-sized pieces are formed.
- Sprinkle 1 Tbs. of the cold water over part of the flour & shortening mixture, and gently toss it with a fork to moisten. Push this moistened bit of dough off to the side of the bowl, and repeat until all the dough is moistened, using only 1 Tbs at a time. Use more water if needed. This part is time consuming, but being careful makes a difference.
- Divide the dough in half (for double crust). Form each half of the dough into a ball. On a lightly floured surface, flatten out one of the balls of dough with a lightly floured rolling pin. Be sure to roll from the centers, out to the edges, to ensure that the dough is even, round, and to prevent tears. Roll out until it is roughly a 12-in a circle. I always make mine a bit larger, because my pie pan is rather large.
- Now comes the tricky part...transferring the dough to the pie pan. Gently wrap the dough around your rolling pin. Lift it over to the pie pan, carefully unroll it, and ease the dough into the pie pan. Be careful not to stretch the dough, as that will lead to tearing.
- Trim the edges, using the edge of the pie pan as a guide, after you have put in the filling. *See further down for instructions on the filling, as well as a crumb topping recipe for a single crust pie, and a caramel apple pie variation.
- Roll out the remaining dough (for double crust pie) into another circle about the same size as the last one. You can place it over the pie as is, making sure to cut slits into the dough to allow steam to escape, or you could cut the circle into strips to create a lattice-top, or any other type of top crust you desire.
- Trim the top crust, and dip your finger in water, and pinch the edges together. You can create a rope edge, by pinching on an angle, use a fork to create a lined or cross-hatched edge, or flute the edges by pressing the thumb of one hand, down into the dough, while pressing up around that thumb with the thumb and forefinger of the other.
Filling Ingredients
- 6 Cups of baking apples (about 2 1/4 lbs)-use whatever type of apples you prefer, I generally use Johnathan apples when I can
- 1 1/2 Tbs lemon juice (fresh is always better)- optional
- 3/4 Cup sugar
- 2 Tbs flour
- 3/4 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
Instructions For Pie FIlling and Baking
- Peel, core and slice the apples. I do this by hand, mostly because I don't have one of those neat little tools that does all that for me. Therefore, the apples in my pie filling don't look nearly as nice as some pies, but they taste great, and they are generally covered by a crust or topping, so it doesn't matter that much to me.
- Sprinkle the apples with the lemon juice. This isn't necessary, but it does help keep the apples from browning while you are preparing the filling. I like to do it, and if I end up using some sweeter apples than I had wanted to, it adds a bit of that sourness.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add in the apple slices and gently toss until the apples are evenly coated.
- Gently pour the apple mixture into your pastry-lined pie pan.
- Follow the steps above for finishing off the crust, or see directions below for the crumb topping.
- Once you are prepared to bake, cover the edges of the pie with foil. This prevents the edges of the crust from getting too brown.
- Place pie on a cookie sheet and bake in a pre-heated oven at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and continue to bake for an additional 25-30 minutes, or until the top is lightly brown. Let cool.
I Need One of These
Ingredients and Instructions for Crumb Topping
If you would like to make a Dutch Apple Pie, with a crumbly topping instead of the standard two-crust pie, I am including the instructions for it. I love to make the crumb topping, because it adds more flavor, and gives a bit of a different taste to the pie. I love to change things up a bit.
- 1/2 Cup flour
- 1/2 Cup brown sugar
- 1/8 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- 3 Tbs butter
- Stir together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Using a pastry blender, or your hands (again, I prefer to use my hands), cut in the butter until the butter is thoroughly distributed and the mixture resembles course crumbs.
- Sprinkle the crumb topping on top of the pie filling before baking. Continue with the baking instructions for the pie.
Caramel Apple Pie Variation
I love making my caramel apple pie! It is a great alternative to pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving and makes a nice treat on Christmas or other holidays. There are some substitutions and changes you need to make to the pie filling recipe, but the crust recipe is the same. Again, you can do a double-crust pie, or the Dutch apple pie with the crumb topping.
Changes to filling ingredients:
- Replace the 3/4 Cup of sugar with 2 Tbs each of regular sugar and brown sugar.
- Increase the amount of cinnamon from 3/4 tsp to 1 tsp.
- Increase the amount of nutmeg from 1/4 tsp to 1/2 tsp.
Caramel Sauce Ingredients and Instructions:
- 1 stick of butter
- 3 Tbs flour
- 1/2 Cup sugar
- 1/2 Cup brown sugar
- 1/4 Cup water
- In a medium saucepan, over medium-low heat, melt the butter.
- Add in the flour and stir.
- Add in the sugar, brown sugar and water.
- Turn up the heat slightly and bring this to a boil.
- Reduce heat and boil for five minutes, stirring constantly!
- Pour most of the caramel sauce over apple filling after you have put the apples into the pie shell; saving a small amount.
- Finish crust in your desired manner (double-crust or crumb topping).
- Bake according to directions above, but when you remove the foil, pour, or brush, the remaining caramel sauce on top of the pie crust.
© 2013 Anna Marie Bowman