glorious apple pie

Look at these gorgeous apples. We picked them fresh off the trees at an organic orchard just an hour and a half from where we live. It was really a ton of fun. What's more, we were able to get varieties of apples not normally found in stores. You can read about our little apple pickin' excursion HERE.

We took home these Glen Seedling, Stayman Winesap and Virginia Winesap apples with the intention of baking a homemade apple pie. I found a basic recipe online and customized it to my liking. It's hard to say how many apples you really need as it really depends on the variety of apple you use. Just make sure you get enough to overfill a pie plate. I used a mix of 10 Winesaps (smaller tart and sweet apples) and 4 Glen Seedlings (large tart apples). You can also use Granny Smiths; but I like to mix the sweet and tart to get just the perfect balance.

Ingredients:

• Apples (enough to overfill a pie plate) peeled, cored and sliced
• 2 pastry sheets (I used Pillsbury ready made pastry sheets)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 Tablespoons of all-purpose flour
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup water (remove 1 Tablespoon of water from the 1/4 cup to compensate for vanilla)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed golden brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• dash of nutmeg
• 1 egg white beaten

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Peel, core and slice apples. Don't slice them too think as it will take longer to cook. Submerge in a bowl of very cold water to keep them from turning brown while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
• Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to thicken. Add water, white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and keep on a very low simmer. Careful not to burn it.
• Working quickly, remove apples from water and place on paper or cloth towel to dry.
• Place bottom crust into pie plate. Make sure you press crust into the plate so that there is no air between the crust and the plate. Brush the crust with the beaten egg white.
• Remove sauce from heat. Pour 3/4 of sauce over your sliced apples (make sure the apples are not overly wet) and toss together. Save the rest of the sauce for later.
• Pour apples onto crust, filling pie plate generously and mounding it just a bit.
• Cover with a lattice work of crust and seal edges of pie. I used the tines of a fork to pinch them shut. Gently pour the rest of the sauce over the crust, spreading it out evenly. Brush with egg whites and sprinkle a bit of sugar on top. This will give the crust a nice, sparkly sheen.
• Bake for 50 minutes or until apples are soft and pie is a nice golden brown. Remove from oven and let sit for one hour. This will give the caramel sauce time to thicken. Enjoy!

Sauce covered apples overfill a pie plate.

A lattice top crust covered in sauce. Best to spread the sauce evenly to give an even golden color. You can use a pastry brush to hep you with this.

Golden baked, yummy, sweet and tarty apple pie. It really came out quite well, if I do say so myself. It's got a nice caramel cinnamony flavor without it being too sweet. And the mix of apples were a good balance. Just perfect for chilly autumn evenings!