Apple Pie

Today I’m going to make an apple pie, and half the work is already done.  I made the pie crust yesterday, so today I’ll take it out of the freezer to use. Keeping these pre-made ziplock bags of pie crust in the freezer makes baking so much easier.

The pie crust should be taken out of the freezer and allowed to thaw for about 15 minutes before rolling out. Place the dough on a floured surface, sprinkle more flour over the top of the dough, then gently roll outward from the middle. The dough should be rolled to be slightly larger than the pie plate. Loosen the dough from the surface with a metal spatula and fold in half.

Place the dough in the pie plate.

Now we can get to the apple part of the apple pie.

Apple Pie

Pastry for double crust pie

About 8 cups thinly sliced tart apples
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Dash salt
2 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

For baking purposes, apples should be a firm, tart variety such as Granny Smith.

The size of the apples that you have will dictate how many apples to use.  A medium-sized apple will usually make a cup of sliced apples. These large apples make much more.

Peel the apples . . .

. . . and thinly slice  to make about 8 cups.

Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt. Mix well.

Combine sugar mixture with apples.

Fill pie plate with apple mixture. Dot with butter.

Roll out top crust for pie in the same manner as the lower crust.

Fold the crust in half and place on top of the pie plate.

Adjust crust; trim off excess crust around the edge of pie. Cut holes in the top to vent, and crimp edge to seal. Sprinkle with sugar for sparkle. Place on a baking sheet to catch any overflow and bake at 400 degrees F for 50 minutes or until done.

For the last 20 minutes of baking time, shield edges with aluminum foil strips to prevent over browning of crust.

Remove from oven; cool on a wire rack.

Serve plain or with a scoop of ice cream. Nothing fancy, just good, basic apple pie.