Day 1: Homemade Apple Pie with Crumb Topping

What better way to start my Made from Home Daily challenge than by making good 'ole apple pie?!  It is fall, after all, and the delicious smell of apple pie wafting through my house somehow makes the world right.  It's a feeling of being home...if that makes any sense. 

As you will come to see, as we move along this homemade journey, I am by far NOT a professional chef, DIYer (is that a word?...it is today), parent, wife, homemaker...or well, anything!  In fact, I probably have no right to start a blog about food, or anything for that matter, except to say that I love it...I love food.  I love having basic, simple ingredients turn into a mouthful of scrumptious goodness.  I love gifting others with food and seeing the expressions of gratitude at not having to figure something out for dinner.  Is it purely selfish? Yes, absolutely.   Forgive me.

Which brings me to this apple pie.  My son had his first sleepover last night and I made this apple pie to take for their desert.  Since my friend was feeding my kiddo for dinner, I figured the least I could do was provide sugar for the kids to eat.  (I'm sure I am my friend's hero...kids pumped up on sugar.  After dinner.  Yeah.  Go me.)  It smelled sooooooo good while cooking that my friend really is lucky she even received the pie!

Anyway, I haven't stopped thinking about it since yesterday.  So, today, I am making my own.  In a square baking dish.  Because I don't have a pie pan.  Pathetic.  I know.  Who writes a food blog and not have something so basic as a pie pan?  Me.  Yes.  Only me.  *sigh*  I can only pray I provide hope to others who may not have the luxuries of a pie pan.

So, with that in mind...

 



Let's make some apple pie!   Lately, apples have been on sale around here for about 2lbs/$1.  I bought about 15lbs and peeled and cored and froze some, while just coring and slicing others (I used the ones with the peel for apple butter...I'll post that recipe another day).  Here I took out 2 quart sized bags, or about 8 apples worth, and sliced them.  I didn't thaw them first as they aren't too hard to slice frozen. 

Mix the flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and lemon juice with the apples until they are all coated well.  Then sit the apples aside to soak up all the yumminess.

 

While the apples are sitting in their sugary goodness, you'll want to make the crumb topping.  You will need the brown sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon, and butter.  You want your butter to be softened but not mushy (Make any sense at all?  Yeah, I didn't think so.  Basically, take it out of the fridge and if you can squeeze it firmly and it mushes then it's softened.  If when you squish the butter, it doesn't budge, let it sit at room temp for a little while.  You don't want it to be runny or melted.  Mine was perfect right out of the fridge).  Also, I noticed that I was out of brown sugar, so I made some (think of it as a two-fer...two homemade items for the price of one day!).  All you need is regular granulated sugar and some molasses.  Measure how much sugar you want (I needed 1 cup) and then just pour in some molasses...the less molasses, the lighter the brown sugar.  The more molasses, the darker the brown sugar.  I probably used about 1/2 tbsp-ish.

 



 Then just take a fork (could be done with a mixer if you are making a lot to store) and mix until it looks like brown sugar.

See!  How pretty, right!  I know, when I first learned this trick I was amazed.  Simple things amaze me.

Add the flour, butter, cinnamon, and oats to the brown sugar.  Mix with a fork until crumbly.

It should look like this.



Then, if unlike me, you took the pie crust out of the freezer earlier in the day so that it would thaw, you can go ahead and roll out the crust to fit the baking dish.  I, however, wasn't that smart.  So, while I finished the apples and crumb topping, my crust was still somewhat frozen and hard to unroll. 

 

So, I refilled my oats container while I waited...and waited...

Finally it thawed enough (with a little prying on my end) to unroll.  I then took my roller and rolled out the crust until it was big enough for the baking dish.

My rolling skills could definitely use some work... :-/   I then put the crust into the baking dish and tried to prettify (I doubt this is a word...sorry) my edges.


Add the apples.  Make sure they are evenly dispursed in the crust.

Then add the topping!  Place in the oven at 400 F for about 10 min until the crumble top is browned slightly then turn down the oven to 375 F for about an hour and 1/2 (it would be less time if in a pie pan).

Once it's done, you really should let it sit for a few hours to solidify/soak up the yummy juices/cool down so you don't scorch your mouth/etc, but who can wait for that???  Yeah, me either!  If only I had some ice cream...so need to work on that thinking ahead concept.  Maybe tomorrow.  Enjoy!

 



Crumb Topped Apple Pie

Adapted from :  Apple Pie with Crumb Topping (this recipe is for a typical pie pan sized pie...mine is for a 9x9 square baking dish)

Pie Crust

I used a store bought crust.  I like them and have yet to perfect my rolling skills so I don't usually make pie crusts.  If you have a favorite crust you like to make, feel free to use that, or try the crust in the original recipe (see link above).

Apple Pie Filling

8 thinly sliced apples (I used frozen granny smith and gala)
3/4 c sugar
3 HEAPING tbsp flour (or 4 tbsp if you are so inclined to level the tablespoon)
cinnamon (I love cinnamon with my apples and just started sprinkling until I felt there was enough)
nutmeg (see cinnamon above)
a pinch of salt
juice from 1/2 lemon (or a lime like I used)

Crumb Topping

1c flour
cinnamon (just start shaking)
1c brown sugar
1c oats (I used old fashioned)
1/2c butter, softened

Mix all pie filling ingredients in a bowl.  Make sure all the apples are coated and everything is mixed well.  Sit aside.  Mix all but the butter for the crumb topping.  Add butter and use either a pastry cutter (which, surprise, surprise, I don't have), food processor (I do have this but was too lazy to get it out), or a fork (my weapon of choice) and mix until crumbly.  Roll out the pie crust to the size needed to fit the baking dish (or pie pan if you have one).  Press the crust into the dish and fancify the edges however you like.  Mix the apples again to make sure all the juices and spices are mixed well.  Add to the pie crust.  In the original recipe she mentions to add only a portion of the juices, however, I used frozen apples I had peeled and cored previously, and didn't have any juices so I just poured everything into the pie crust.  Add the crumb topping and spread evenly over the apples.  For this size baking dish, I baked the pie at 400 F for about 10 min, then put foil over the top and turned the oven down to 375 F for about an hour and a 1/2.  (Again, if you are using a smaller pie pan, please see original post link above for suggestions regarding time and temp).


Happily Homemade,
Sandra