apple pie | wordsfromanneli

Earlier this spring, I was bragging about how many blossoms were on our transparent apple tree.

Later, many of these blossoms turned into apples. If you’re not familiar with transparent apples, you might think it would be great to just take a big chomp of one of these apples and enjoy the juicy freshness. You would be disappointed. It would be juicy and fresh, but it would be mouth-puckering sour. The very ripe ones are okay for eating, but the best are the just barely ripe ones that are crying out to be turned into a pie.

Notice that the apples weigh a lot more than those pretty white fluffy flowers. We had to prop up the branches so they wouldn’t break under the weight of the apples and the tree is already leaning from the load.

I picked a bunch of the apples to lighten the load. In the house, I peeled and cut them and put them into a bowl with a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon and a couple of tablespoons of flour.

Then the food processor made the job of making a pie crust easy, and as they say the rest is history. Well, the pie was, anyway. I was lucky to get this photo before it all disappeared. Funny how apple pie just seems to evaporate whenever there’s a cup of tea or coffee around.

Apple blossoms, apples high,

Up on branches to the sky,

Pick them, peel them, apples all,

No sense waiting ’til they fall.

Long awaited, now they’re ripe,

Just be patient and don’t gripe,

Apple pieces in the pie,

Taste so lovely, my, oh, my!

It’s apple time again. If you’re lucky enough to have an apple tree, it’s practically your duty to make a pie or two.

Here we go:

Peel and cut up the apples into a big bowl. Save your peelings for the compost.

In a small bowl, mix up some brown sugar (maybe two to four tablespoons – depends on how sour the apples are), two tablespoons of flour, and a generous sprinkle of cinnamon.

Add the sugar/cinnamon mixture to the apples and stir to coat the apples.

In a food processor, put two cups of flour, a cup of butter, a pinch of salt, and a quarter cup of sugar. Pulse it a few times to blend.

In a measuring cup put one egg yolk and add cold water to make about 3/4 of a cup.

Mix the egg yolk and water with a fork and add to the food processor. Pulse it just a few times to mix it and then put the dough onto a board for rolling out.

Put the egg white in a dish and add a dash of half and half cream for brushing the top of the crust before baking (so save that for a bit later when the pies are almost ready to put in the oven).

Handling the dough as little as possible, press it into a big lump. Cut it in two (for two pies) and cut each piece in two once more (for the bottom and top of each pie – so, four pieces).

Roll out the pieces of dough, doing the bottom layer first so you can put half of the apples in each pie dish. I’ve found that an easy way to move the dough from the board to the pie plate is to fold it in half, lay it on half the dish, and then unfold it. Don’t worry if the rolled out dough has rough edges. Those will be trimmed off after the “lid” is put on.

Brush the top of the pies with the egg white mixture. Cut some slits into the pie crust to allow steam to escape while it’s baking. Have the oven preheated to 450. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the top crust begins to brown. Turn the oven down to 350 and bake for another 30-35 minutes, until you see juice bubbling as it tries to get out of the crust.

It’s best to let the pie cool a bit before trying to cut it and putting it on a plate, but once it has cooled slightly, it will hold together better. That’s the time to serve it up and enjoy!