My First Apple Pie

Six apples sitting on the kitchen counter for, say, more than two week were annoying me. No one of the family here seemed to not eat them. I was thinking of how to wisely use them, mm ... An apple pie!

When I went to grocery shopping yesterday, I looked for ready-made crust, but I couldn't find it. I made crust dough by hand last night and kept it in the fridge. DS has every kind of cooking tools, which makes cooking very easy. Therefore, making dough was also not a big deal.

This morning, I was rolling dough out to place it in a pie plate. EB seemed to be impressed and said, "Wow, I can't believe you are making a pie from scratch!" Oh, well, I couldn't find ready-made crust. There's no other way than to make it by myself.

After about an hour in the oven, the pie was made. It looked good and smelled good. MB was literally waiting in front of the oven until the time was up. Holding a cake knife, he was excited to cut the pie, saying, "I think it's ready." I had to calm him down for five minutes until the pie cooled down a little bit. Finally, he cut it, and I saw that the filling was really juicy. I was wondering if it was too juicy. But MB explained that it was just like it's supposed to be.

Eventually, EB came back to the kitchen, excited. She also loves pies. In fact, she had two pieces of pies! Wow, I was glad they both liked it. My first apple pie was a success!

For my own information, here's the recipe.

Crust:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, chilled and diced
• 1/2 cup ice water

1. Combine the flour and salt, and cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
2. Stir in the ice water, a tablespoon at a time, until the crust mixture forms a ball.
3. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
4. Roll dough out, then divide in half.
5. Place crust in pie plate, pressing evenly into the bottom and sides.

Pie:

• Pastry for 2 crusts
• 8 cups sliced, peeled assorted baking apples
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon milk

1. Toss the sliced apples with lemon juice.
2. Combine sugars, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg; add to apples and toss well to coat.
3. Fill pastry lined 9 inch pie pan with apple mixture. Dot with butter.
4. Place second crust on top of pie filling, cut slits in top of crust to vent. Seal the edges of the crust with a fork or by hand.
5. Beat the egg yolk and milk. Brush mixture over top crust.
6. Bake at 425F for 15 minutes.
7. Reduce heat to 350F and bake 40-45 minutes more or until crust is golden and filling is bubbly.

The funny thing is, the kids happened to have a dentist appointment in the afternoon. After this apple pie party around lunchtime, they had to brush their teeth carefully to see the dentist, ha ha ha.