apple pie!

So, my Uncle Bengt is really good at baking pies- and I have been lucky enough to help him twice now. I thought that I should blog about our successes (and our failures!) so that you can make great pie too!

Pie Crust Recipe

1/2 Cup Butter (chilled- 15 min. freezer)

1/2 Cup Crisco (chilled-15 min. freezer)

1 Cup Flour

1 Tsp. Salt

2 Tsp. Sugar

1/4 Cup ICE Water (put in spritz bottle)

Apple Pie Filling

6-8 Granny Smith Apples (slice as thin as possible)

1/2 Cup Butter melted, plus another 2 Tbsp. solid

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

1/2 Cup White Sugar

2 Tbsp. Cinnamon

1 Tbsp. Nutmeg

1/4 Cup Water

So you can use a food processor, we live in Europe and do not have one here...so we just sacrifice our hands. After the Butter and Crisco have been in the freezer, take them out and quickly cut them into small cubes.

Combine flour, salt, butter and crisco until the dough still has pockets of butter, but is well combined.  (Using a wisk or two knives works best) Spritz mixture with water, mix through flour mixture and then repeat until dough can somewhat hold. We have found that the less you work the dough, the colder it stays and the less water you use the more flaky the crust.  Split dough in two, wrap in plastic Then place dough in fridge to chill, about two to three hours.

After it is done chilling, pull dough out of fridge and let stand 5-10 minutes. Place saran wrap on surface and then cover with flour. Roll dough out to 1/8 inch thick. Take edges of saran wrap and flip the dough into a pie pan. Flute edges.

Boil sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and water in saucepan.

Place one layer of apples into crust. Place three small pads of solid butter sporadically on top. Then drizzle approx. 2 tablespoons of sugar mixture over first layer. Repeat this three times. With apples slightly mounding. Pour the rest of the sugar mixture over apples.

Roll out other half of dough, 1/8 inch thick, and place over pie. Slit the top. Bake for 15 minutes at 450 F, and then reduce heat to 375 F for another 35-45 minutes.

Let stand 10-15 minutes, then ENJOY! :)


I hope this works well for you, I would love to hear any tips/comments that you have!