Tuesday, July 30, 2013

My Boyfriend's Apple Pie

A few weeks ago (maybe a MONTH?), I was a guest blogger on Welcome to the Mouse House.  This is one of my all time favorite blogs.  Hayley is amazing.  Her sewing and crafting skills are out of this world!  You should really check out her blog.  She has a tutorials page that will give you all kinds of ideas and inspiration!  My apple pie recipe is on the tutorials page under recipes, but here it is as well.

Enjoy!

My sophomore year in high school, there was a new boy.  
(I'm sure all of you remember that feeling!) 
And he was SOOO cute!  He started dating a friend of mine.  Every single girl in the school was jealous.  Lucky for me, he was in my Spanish class. Hola, guapo! At the end of the semester he began talking to me a lot and we started hanging out during winter break.  He had broken up with
"the other girl" a few weeks before.  If he told me the reason why, I don't remember.
Who wants to talk about other girls when you have a hottie senor looking you in the eyes?

We officially started dating before school began for the spring semester.  When my friend
found out she was no longer my friend.  She was pretty peeved at me, to put it nicely.  Double lucky for me, she was super tall and skinny and got picked up by a modeling agency and flew
out to Spain for 5 months to model. 
(I heard she did topless pics on the beaches, but I was never able to confirm that.)

At some point, I met his family for the first time.  We had dinner at his house.  His mom had made
an apple pie.  It was love at first sight.


Well, he graduated and moved on to college.  I had enough credits to skip my junior year.  We
did a long distance relationship my senor year.  I was accepted to University of Texas so he transferred there.  

We dated 4 years. Every time I saw his mom, she always had an apple pie for me.  
For my high school graduation gift, she gave me a recipe box full of her recipes including the apple pie.

Technically I cannot take credit for the recipe, so we can all thank my 
ex-boyfriend's mother!

Thanks for hanging in there with me!  On to the recipe!

For you go-getters: here is the recipe and quick instructions.  
For the people who like pictures and tips/tricks, see below.

My Boyfriend's Apple Pie Recipe

4 Granny Smith apples, cored and sliced 
1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1T cinnamon
2T flour 
Pie shell 
(one pie shell if you want crumble topping, 2 if you want shell top)

Crumble topping
3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
8T butter, chilled  and sliced

1.  Peel, core, and slice apples.  Boil on stove top for about 10 minutes or until soft
2.  Strain water out and put apples back into pot.
3.  Add butter, brown sugar, white sugar, and cinnamon to pot.  Gently fold everything together
until butter and sugar are melted.
4.  Add the flour
5.  Pour all of that goodness into your pie shell. 
6.  Top with your crumbles (see below) or other pie shell
7.  Bake at 350 for 60 minutes.

Crumble Mix
Put all ingredients in pastry blender and blend until crumbly.  
You can also do this with your hands/fingers.

Now, for those who like pictures, tips and tricks, and further rambling. 

Gather all your materials.  Cover the baking sheet in foil.
Just in case the pie gooey goodness leaks during baking,
you won't have to scrub it off.

 Put on your favorite apron.  My sister in law
made this for me several years ago.
"Brizee's Bakery.  Button Bustin' Good!"

Grab your big pot and boil some water (about 2/3 the way up on the pot).
Peel, core, and slice your apples.
I like to get about 6 slices per apple.  
You don't want thin or super thick
slices.

Once the water is boiled, carefully lower those slices into the pot.
I say carefully because getting splashed by boiling water
is not fun. Boil until the apples are soft enough to stab a fork but pull them out 
before the apples begin to peel apart and turn to mush.

 While the apples boil, grab your pastry blender (or a bowl 
if you want to use your fingers)
Slice your chilled stick of butter.
Throw all crumble topping ingredients into the blender (or bowl)
and blend it up (mush and press together with fingers).
 Here's what it should look like.  You might need to use your fingers 
to get good crumbles.

 Apples still boiling?  Grab a snack and check Facebook.

 And move that puppy on a string that you continue to trip over.

Oh yes, apples stab-able but firm.

 Strain out that water.

Return the apples to the pot (stove turned off).  Carefully fold brown sugar, white sugar, stick of butter, and cinnamon.  You don't want to mash those apples! Let's keep them in nice slices.
Continue to fold until everything is melted together.

Fold in the flour.

I like to transfer the apples to the pie shell first and arrange them nicely.

Pour butter/sugar liquid on top of apples until the apples
are coated (you might have some liquid left over)

Throw on that crumble topping! You want to cover every centimenter
of the top.  A good covered pie won't leak, unless you overflowed it
like I did here.  Doesn't matter either way, it will still taste delicious!

*If you want a crust top.  Take that other pie crust you have and lay it on top of your pie.
Remove any crust that hangs over the edges then pinch the two crusts together on the edges.
Make a few holes on top of the crust for breathing.*

 Slide that baby in the oven.  Bake at 350 for 60 minutes.  
Check at the 40 minute mark.  You pie will be brown on top. Don't be fooled; it's not done yet!
Get a small piece of foil and slide it on top of your pie.
Let it bake 20 more minutes.  The foil will prevent the top from burning.




As I mentioned before, I poured too much liquid in my pie and it overflowed during baking.  
No big deal.  This is why you want to make sure your pan is foil lined.
When you move to the pie to its final resting place, no one will know.

I immediately swept this pie away to a party with the intention of finding a willing participate
to eat a piece so I could take a picture.  By the time I made it back to the pie, it was all gone.
Well, shucks. 
One guy, who apparently ate two pieces, told my husband
"You need to get your wife to tell my woman the recipe because
your wife stuck her foot in that pie."

I have NO idea what that means but I'm taking it as a compliment!

Thank you for reading my guest post.  If you try out the recipe, please let me know what you think!
If you like the pie and want to see more recipes in the future, let Hayley know.  
I have a strawberry bread recipe that is to die for!

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