National Apple Day

Hola everyone!

I am behind my time posting.  Monday, October 21st, was National Apple Day in the USA.  I had off that day and picked up fixings for an easy-make apple pie (I posted the recipe here).  Here is a sort of mini-pictorial of my pie-making process.

Note: Use a store bought pie crust for the bottom layer of the pie, and it is not pre-baked.

This was the start of the bottom layer, using 2 apples.  I use Grandma Newton's method of starting placement of the apples around the outside of the pie plate, working inward, and filling in gaps here and there with the odd piece of apple (waste not, want not). 

This is what the pie looked like after the second layer of apples was placed (apples 3 and 4).

This was the pie after apple 5 was placed.  I probably should have stopped at 4, LOL, and just rearranged the slices a bit!  The pie turned out beautifully and was perfectly cooked, but because of the extra bulk I added I had to bake it for an extra 15 minutes.  It was torture waiting for that time to pass, I wanted to pull the pie out of the oven and start the cooling process so I could have a piece, it smelled soooo good!

This is after the cinnamon and sugar mixture is sprinkled liberally over the apples.

The next pictures are making the crumbly topping which consists of flour, sugar, 1/3rd cup butter and I add about half a teaspoon of cornstarch to stablize the apple mixture once it starts baking, so it doesn't get too "wet:"

Not the best photo, but this is about the right consistency.  As you can see, the butter, which is worked in very cold (I get a work-out by using a regular old fork to do it), is in rather large lumps.  That's how it should look.  I took the photo below on a different setting to see if I could get more contrast:

Here's the pie after the topping is sprinkled over it and "worked" into the cracks, oven-ready!  I know, it looks like it is overflowing and there is too much topping.  The topping sinks in as it bakes and the butter melts.  Sometimes the pie does overflow and drip a little, so I line the bottom of my oven with aluminum foil to catch any drips/spill-overs: 

And here is what this scrumptious pie looked like when I took it out of the oven after baking time plus 15 minutes:

As you can see, the mound of apples in the center has shrunk down in the baking process to a "cuttable" level.  There is practically an entire "crust" across the top of the pie, not just crumbs sprinkled here and there. It looks great without using a possibly "heavy" store bought crust for topping or making and rolling out my own.  It tastes really good, too.

Adding the cornstarch to the recipe (it was not in the original recipe that I received years ago), definitely aids in the pie holding together after it cools, even when using apples like Red Delicious (bake juicy).  I have made this pie with a mixture of Red Delicious and Granny Smith, and Granny  Smith and whatever other apples happen to be on sale.  This pie was made with Cortlands (on sale).  Depending upon the size of the apples, 4 may be more than enough to fill a 9" pie plate. 

Adding that 5th apple, the pie overall could have used a touch more cinnamon.  Otherwise, it was perfect! 

A Fabulous and Easy Apple Crumb Pie

Hola darlings!  I'm getting this ready to post at Throwback Thursday #5 at Glitter, Glue & Paint. 

I was so sure I'd posted this apple pie recipe I've had for years at this blog, but it turns out nope, I have not.  So today I am correcting that omission.

This post is actually from my other blog that used to be called Chess, Goddess and Everything and now is called, simply, Goddesschess.  It was created to compliment the Goddesschess website.  None of which you are interested in because it's about chess, female chessplayers, chess history, and our research into the ancient origins of chess and other boardgames, and about lots of other stuff too, some of it whacky and wild, some of it pretty far out.

Not to get sidetracked, Jan...  Okay, so the original post that this recipe is from is long and talks about other things besides the apple pie recipe, so I don't know if it's cheating, precisely, to just cut out the apple pie recipe and post it here, and link back to my original post?  Anyway, here's what I wrote about the apple pie on a Sunday, November 6, 2011.  Get this -- I spent most of that day cutting the grass in my front and back yards!!!! in November!  Wow. 

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Yard Work, Genealogy and Apple Pie

Now, about that apple pie! I baked one yesterday, my first, but not my last, of the season. T'is the season for baking apple pie and making chili. Yesterday I opted to bake rather than make chili. The new Pick 'n Save - I have to say it has a splendid selection of apples, many on sale right now, some types I've never heard of before and have no idea what they may taste like. I am tempted to go back to the store today and buy one of each unknown type just to taste them and see what they're like! This is peak Wisconsin apple season although I'm sure some of these apples are coming in from other states, too. Beautiful, gorgeous big apples! I've never seen such big Cortlands in my life! I bought five yesterday on sale for $0.98 a pound but with my card I got them for $0.89 a pound, weighed in at 2.68 pounds! Five apples weighed that much! I bought the Cortlands because I know they're a good baking apple; they don't get mushy and watery, the death of a good apple pie.

Here is my pie:

Beautiful, if I do say so myself :)

It has a crumble topping and a store-bought bottom crust that doesn't need to be pre-baked. The prep time takes the longest; putting the pie together itself is fast once the prep is all done.

Hmmm, it seems I haven't written about my apple pie recipe before. Amazing! This is the same recipe I handed out to the CCR (the ladies of the bus) last week and also posted for the family at Facebook last night:

9" pie crust, unbaked - put into pie plate
5 -7 apples
Core and peel, slice into eighths (mine are irregular; these were really big apples and eighths were just too large, so I cut some of them slimmer)
Layer prepared apples on top of crust. Some people start from the center and work outwards; I learned from Grandma Newton to start on the outside and work toward the center, filling in odd gaps with pieces of apple.
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Mis sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle over the layered apples.

Crumble Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour or baking mix
(I also add a dash - and I do mean just a dash - of salt, but the original recipe does not add salt)
1/3rd cup cold butter (5 tablespoons)
Mix sugar and flour or baking mix; cut in cold butter until mixture is crumbly. Don't use room temperature butter, and don't work the mixture too long cutting in the butter, it will turn into pie dough! I this know from experience... It helps the "cutting" to have a pastry mixer instead of a fork, and to cut the cold butter into little pieces and then add into the dry mix. The correct texture of this mixture will be dry, with coated lumps of butter dispersed throughout. Distribute the mixture over the apples, trying to get an even coating. This forms the "crust" on top of the pie.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 40 minutes OR until the pie is bubbling and the top is light brown to brown (not burnt!)

Using the Cortlands resulted in a sweet pie that holds together very well and there is no excess juice to make the crust soggy at the bottom of the pie.

I was an absolute Ms. Piggy last night. I hate a full quarter of the pie and enjoyed a rare evening cup of coffee with it. It was cool last night so I had a fire going as I enjoyed my coffee and pie. Heaven, simply Heaven! The only thing that would make it better is some French Vanilla Ice Cream. Hmmm....

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I will only add in the present that I have made this pie with a mixture of Red Delicious and Granny Smith apples and it turned out very delicious, too, but didn't hold together quite as well when cutting it into slices as using only Cortlands, and the crust gets a little soggy by the 3rd day in the fridge.  But if you have lots of mouths at home to eat up this great pie, your crust will never get soggy because the pie won't be around long enough for this to happen, so try a mixture of Red Delicious and Granny Smith apples.  I like sweet so I use one more Red Delicious than Granny Smith, depending upon their relative sizes.  Experiment and create your own special blend of apples to make this delicious and easy pie. 

I also should mention that the raw pie is going to create quite a mound of apples in the pie plate and you'll eye it dubiously, thinking it's going to bubble over the rim, but it cooks down beautifully.  You may get a bit of spill-over, though, so you might want to put some tin foil down on the bottom of your oven, just in case.  Beats scrubbing out an oven!