French Apple Pie

French Apple Pie

My favorite fall activity is taking a trip to the apple orchard and hand-picking my favorite apples. Although they are a nice treat by themselves, they make the best pies. My personal favorite dessert is dutch apple pie. Apple Pie can be eaten at any time in the year, but the best time to make it is fall because the apples are fresh and in season.

Best Apples for Pie

1.McIntosh

2.Cortland

3.Jonamac

4.Golden Delicious

5.Ida Red

6.Mutsu

7.Empire

8.Jonathan

9.Jersey Mac

10.Honey Crisp

Every year I find the tastiest apples at Stuckey Farms, if you are ever close by you might check it out!

http://www.stuckeyfarm.com

Ingredients:

Filling

¾ cup sugar

¼ cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

dash of salt

6 cups sliced apples (about 6 medium sized)

Topping

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ cup butter (softened)

½ cup packed brown sugar

Steps:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Roll out your pie crust into a 9-inch pie pan. You can use whatever pie crust you like. I use a recipe I found on Pinterest and it is delicious! Here is the link to the pie crust recipe I use for almost all of my pies: http://happyfoodhappyhome.blogspot.com/2014/05/flaky-pie-crust-recipe.html

After that, peel your apples. There are many different tips and tricks people have tought me about peeling fruit, specifically apples. Although, I like to cheat a little and use a “peel away.” This particular device peels and cuts the apples, but it is always good to go old-fashioned and peel with a knife and slice them on your own.

Next combine sugar, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt. This will cover your apples so it is important to mix together all ingredients thoroughly. The ingredients will be very thin and resemble the look of flour and sugar, but they will mix together with the apple juices and create a nice semi-thick coating for the apples.

Now comes the fun part! Add the apples and stir them around in the bowl until all apples have been completely coated and there is no remaining mixture in the bottom of the bowl. Be sure to taste an apple so that you have the desired flavor you like. Sometimes apples can turn out to be a bit more tart so I would advise adding some sugar. Once the apples are how you want them, pour them into the prepared pie crust. It is essential to get all of the juices and remnants on the side of the bowl into the crust in order to maximize the flavor of your pie.

To make the topping, mix together the flour, butter, and brown sugar. It is not supposed to be a smooth texture. You want the topping to be crumbly. To do this, I use a regular kitchen fork and smash the butter into the flour and sugar. Make sure you scrape the mixture out of the fork every once in a while, because it can get pretty full! After you have a crumbly mixture, pour it evenly on top of the apples. I find it easiest to spoon out a little at a time so that I can cover the whole pie without smashing any of the topping into the apples.

Finally, bake the pie for about 50 minutes. Cover the topping with aluminum foil during the last 10 minutes of baking. Due to the hot pie plate, I find it easier to measure out your foil before putting the pie in the oven. This will make it easier to place the foil on top of the pie while it is in the oven rather than taking it out and risking burning yourself. Your pie should be golden brown when you take it out. I believe it is best if you serve it warm with a cool scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. Enjoy!