Ginger in the Kitchen: Old Fashioned Apple Pie and Some Mushy Gushy Stuff.

Favorite Things:
Raindrops on roses
Whiskers on kittens
Lucy
Cocktail dresses
Weddings (and all kinds of ooey gooey love stuff)
Dessert
Rain

Things that are NOT my favorite:
Getting blood drawn (I had to do that today, so afterwards I ate pie to cancel it out. ugh)
Creepy crawly things
Above all: Making pie crust from scratch

I am so good at rambling and less good at getting to my point.

This past weekend was full of my favorite things.
My friend Jenna asked me to bake 12 pies for her and her charming fiancé's (now husband) wedding.
I was obviously over the moon because love and things that contain sugar are up there on my all time favorite things list. (yes, I have one of those)

So, my entire Friday was spent in the kitchen baking pies... giving me an excuse to have a glass of wine at 3pm which is always appreciated.

10 hours
4 Maple Pecan.
4 Pumpkin.
4 Old Fashion Apple.
(annnnddd......1 Apple Crisp for Emily, which she didn't even eat)

MMM.

I don't think there are many things better than walking into your kitchen and seeing 12 delicious pies nicely displayed on your breakfast table.

There are also not many things better than weddings.
Ah. Love them. And this one was so lovely. I'm pretty sure I cried for the entirety of the ceremony. It was so romantic and sweet and it made me even 13654892745 times more excited to marry my own soul mate (you are wonderful, btw.)

There are, however, better moments than realizing that you are your best friend are twirling each other across the dance floor during the father daughter dance. I died of embarrassment and Emily just resorted back to tears...... oopsie.

Old Fashioned Apple Pie (the one on the right)

Ingredients:

3 pounds of apples (I used pink lady)

1 cup sugar

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1 egg beaten

2 pie crusts**

Turbinado sugar to sprinkle on top

** Please see above where I list things that are NOT my favorite...... I HATE making pie crust. I think it is messy and annoying and quite honestly only turns out really good about 50% of the time. I've been to culinary school and I've taken baking classes and I've baked probably somewhere close to one million pies in my life time and I will never change my mind about this. Frozen pie crust tastes just as good and always turns out nice and flakey.

Method:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line the bottom rack with foil to prevent a burnt apple juice and sugar disaster... if you don't line your oven with foil, have fun cleaning for hours afterwards..... I may or may not have learned this from experience.

Peel and slice apples 1/8 inch thick. Add sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon juice. Mix and let sit for 10- 15 minutes until sugar is dissolved.

Scrape apples and all juices into a prepared pie crust. Cut unsalted butter into small cubes and dot on top of apples. Roll out second pie crust and place on top of the pie. Pinch edges together and trim off excess dough if necessary. Using a pastry brush, brush the top crust with beaten egg** and then sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Cut three small slits in the top of the crust so that the steam can escape.

Bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. Turn the oven down to 365 degrees and bake for 50 minutes more. Crust should be golden and juice should be bubbling out. Let cool for at least 2 hours before serving.

**Do not drench the crust in egg or it will get way too dark or even burn. Use just enough for a very light coasting so that the crust will get nice and golden.