Apple Pie

I arranged a Christmas Tea with some of my co-workers this week and wanted to provide something good to eat (preferably a new recipe.) Since I've made so many different cakes in the past and was giving various cookies as the actual Christmas presents, I decided to try another pie since I'd had fairly good luck with the sweet potato pie at Thanksgiving.

This time, I decided to make an apple pie (largely because I had a large bag of apples in my refrigerator getting closer and closer to their rotting point!) For the recipe, I researched a few of the more popular options on allrecipes.com - though most of the options were more complex than I was really wanting to try (I just wanted a simple, classic pie recipe since I also baked a batch of sugar cookies this evening for a massive 6-hour baking marathon!) Fortunately, I was quite happy with the following recipe; it proved to be a very traditional all-American apple pie. The only alteration I might attempt with this recipe is slightly pre-baking the bottom crust before adding the apple-mixture. I had read in the online comments how this had helped prevent a soggy bottom (but I failed to remember this when baking this pie - though, fortunately, it wasn't that soggy.)


Classic Apple Pie

(makes one 9" pie)

7 cups thinly sliced peeled baking apples
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon water
a double pie crust (I simply doubled this recipe from my sweet potato pie)

Prepare the dough for the double crust, dividing so that one is slightly larger than the other. Chill for at least 2 hours. In a bowl, toss apples with lemon juice. Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg; add to apples and toss. Pour into crust; dot with butter. Roll out remaining pastry to fit top of pie; cut slits in top. Place over filling; seal and flute edges. Beat egg yolk and water; brush over pastry. Bake at 425°F (218°C) for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F (175°C) ; bake 40-45 minutes more or until crust is golden and filling is bubbly.