Completely Homemade Apple Pie

A few weeks ago I tried making an apple pie for the first time. Let me tell you, I was a little nervous because I have heard bad stories about how pie crusts turn out. I found recipe on the lovely blog: beingcindykitchen.blogspot.com 
and decided to give it a try! It was so divine! I made a few adjustments and side notes to go along with it.

Completely Homemade Apple Pie

9-inch Pastry Crust:
(This recipe only makes one crust, so in order to do a lattice-top pie it must be doubled. I actually find it easier to just make it twice, since the dough is VERY flaky and so not really easy to divide into two balls without overworking the dough.)

1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon shortening
3 to 4 tablespoons ice water (I keep adding a tablespoon at a time until it reaches a slightly-sticky texture, so I would say I used about 6 or 7 tablespoons.)

Combine flour and salt; cut in shortening with a pastry blender until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle ice water, 1 T at a time, evenly over surface; stir with a fork until dry ingredients are moistened. Shape into a ball; cover and chill until ready to use (at least 30 minutes). Roll pastry to 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. (I find that I have to have my surface more than "lightly floured" or else the dough sticks to the table and breaks when I try to remove it. If the dough is sticking to the table despite the flour, use a flat spatula to gently scrape it off the table. Usually this works just fine.) Fold in quarters, place in pie plate, and unfold. Trim excess pastry along edges. For lattice top: roll out second ball of pastry as directed; cut into one-inch strips. Weave in lattice over filled pie. Separate 1 egg yolk and beat slightly; brush over lattice with pastry brush. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

Apple filling:
4-5 cups chopped apples, as long as it fills the pie pan but doesn't overflow too much. You will need enough room to fold the pie crust on top. (Also, the very orignial recipe also says to peel the apples, but I didn't and they turned out just fine). I loved using gala and the yellow-green golden sweet apples.
1 T lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 T flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 T butter or margarine

Combine apple and lemon juice in large bowl. Combine next 4 ingredients. Spoon over apple mixture, tossing gently. Spoon filling evenly into pastry shell, and dot with butter. (Alternatively - if you are making the pie in stages, you can mix up the crust and the filling and put each of them in the fridge for a few hours. This marinates the apples and makes a nice sugary sauce... if you do that, leave out the butter.) Cover pie with lattice top. Cover edges of pastry with aluminum foil. Note: place a cookie sheet on the rack below whenever you bake something with fruit in it. I forgot to do so and the oven was a mess afterwards! Bake at 450 for 15 minutes; reduce heat to 350 and bake 50 more minutes. Dish up and enjoy! I guaruntee that you will love it!

Pineapple Fruit Salad Bowls

Since the pineapple I used was smaller, it doesn't look as much like a bowl, but I found this idea on Pinterest so I decided to try it out.

Pineapple Fruit Salad Bowl
Take a fresh pineapple, slice off the top, and then slice the pineapple in half length-wise.

Cut out the pineapple and scoop out the remains.

Fill it with the pineapple as well as colorful fruit and voila! You've got a couple of yummy fruit salads.

Crock Pot Applesauce

I usually hate applesauce. Literally, for about 8 years, I ate applesauce for every single meal and snack to take my digestive enzymes for Cystic Fibrosis, since I hadn't learned how to swallow pills at that time. I would break open the capsules and put the small, what I called "bebe's." Once I learned how to swallow pills, I never went back to applesauce.

Years later I tried chunky applesauce, which wasn't as bad. I could handle apple sauce cooked in things, but that was it. 

However, when I saw this recipe on Pinterest, I figured that homemade, chunky applesauce wouldn't be as bad as the disgusting texture and taste of normal applesauce. It was absolutely delicious, can freeze well, doesn't have a lot of ingredients, and is easy to make. Here is the recipe (from http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/10/crock-pot-applesauce.html): 

Crock Pot Applesauce

• 8 medium apples (Use a combination of Golden Delicious, Honey Crisp, Fuji, Gala, etc.)
• 1 strips of lemon peel - use a vegetable peeler
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 3 inch cinnamon stick
• 5 tsp light brown sugar (unpacked) - or agave (however, I cut it down to about 2 1/2 tsp and it was just fine)

Peel, core, and slice the apples. I used a veggie peeler and then a round apple divider cutter

Place in a slow cooker. Add cinnamon stick, lemon peel and brown sugar. 

Set crock pot on low for 6 hours. Stir apples occasionally, as the apples will slowly become a delicious applesauce. Remove cinnamon stick and blend if you prefer a creamier sauce, otherwise you can slightly smash them with a spoon for a chunky sauce.

Then bam. Deliciousness. You can eat it with potato pancakes, with sausage, or just by itself as a healthy snack.