Apple Pie

I have a new quest to make more pies.  I received all sorts of pie related gifts for my birthday (yay!!) and had an opportunity to bring pie to a family function today.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to try a new fancy flavor, as I know my nieces aren't fond of crazy gourmet flavors.  So, apple pie it was!  I bought a bag of Macintosh apples from the grocery store, though they are local New York grown apples.  Therefore, they were small and I ended up coring, peeling and slicing apples for an hour!

I also tweaked my homemade crust recipe, as I don't like using vegetable shortening.  I substituted butter, after researching if it would work with butter instead.  I got a yes, but no further tips.  My recipe calls for refrigerating the dough for 4 hours.  I did, but when it's made with butter . . .  yeah, I had two solid balls of crust dough.  Ug.  I popped them in the microwave for 30 seconds and cursed myself for not thinking the plan through.  If I use butter, I no longer need to refrigerate the dough.

As for the pie itself, I seem to have significant difficulty following recipes for apple pie.  I have a basic recipe that I use, so that I don't forget essential things like lemon juice and flour.  I also reference it to know what temp to use and how long to bake the pie.  The rest I make up as I go along.  So, this pie was made using apples, brown sugar (brownulated - an interesting concept), cinnamon, allspice, ground clove, agave syrup, butter, flour and lemon juice.  I didn't even measure the ingredients, just adding amounts that looked right.

But, it seemed to work out fine.  Everyone raved about the pie and there were absolutely no leftovers!!