Kick Butt Apple Pie and a Lesson in Latticing

November 22, 2010 By Julie 40 Comments

Saturday I had the privilege of meeting up with two fellow foodies who’s blogs I love and admire. I headed up to Childress Vineyards in Lexington NC for an afternoon of wine, food, and conversation with Prerna from Indian Simmer and Rebbeca from Chow and Chatter. The wine was amazing and the conversation even better. There is just something so gratifying (and cool!) about meeting up with the people of the blogs you follow. Putting a face to a name always makes it more personal and reminds me of one of the main reasons I started blogging in the first place. Community. There are so many incredibly talented and amazing bloggers out there. Meeting other bloggers through conferences and outside meet-ups has quickly become one of my favorite aspects of blogging. Thanks for a great afternoon ladies!

But, of course, the reason we’re all here milling around is for the recipe of the day. And I definitely have a good one. Because in case you need reminding, Thanksgiving is coming. And with Thanksgiving comes eating. Lots and lots of eating. And when you’re done eating your delicious feast, you’re going to need a pie. A kick butt good pie. This is that pie. I’ve even gone so far as to put myself out there for my first ever vlog on how to easily lattice a pie. I can almost hear my mom now… “put on some make up and brush your hair! Look pretty for goodness sake!” Ok mom, I didn’t get all dolled up for my opening show, but I still did a pretty decent job of showing how to lattice a pie.

And in a first ever Mommie Cooks blunder, I completely and totally forgot to take a picture of the ingredients for the inside of the pie. I’m not sure what happened. Probably a combination of sleep deprivation, lack of caffeine and three kids talking to me simultaneously as I attempt to do pretty much anything. I did manage to snap a picture of the dough ingredients, so I at least got half there. Let’s bake a pie.

Ingredients Needed:

For the Crust:

11/2 Cups of Flour
1/4 tsp of Salt
1 Stick of Unsalted Butter
1/4 Cup of Water

For the Pie:

4-5 Apples, Peeled and Chopped
1/2 Cup of Brown Sugar
1/2 Stick of Butter
2 Tbsp of Maple Syrup
A Couple Shakes of Salt
1/2 tsp of Vanilla
1/2 tsp of Almond Extract
1 Tbsp of Flour
2 Tbsp of Cream
1 tsp of Cinnamon
1/2 tsp of Nutmeg

To make the dough, you’ll want to add your flour and salt to a bowl. Now cut up your butter into small squares and add it into the flour, a few squares at a time, using either a fork or a pastry blender.

When the butter is all incorporated here’s what you’ll have:

Add in the water and mix it up to form a dough.

Stick the dough in the fridge to chill and let’s start working on the filling.

Grab up your brown sugar, butter, maple syrup, salt, vanilla, almond extract, flour, cream, cinnamon, and nutmeg and dump them into a small pot.

Turn your heat to medium and let the mixture cook up. When it reaches boiling, remove it from the heat and set aside.

Pull your dough back out and cut it into two equal pieces. Roll the first piece out to fit your pie pan and lay it inside.

Cut off the excess and crimp your crust all pretty like.

Now add in your apples.

Now it’s time to roll out your second piece of dough. Roll it out to the size of your pie top. Grab a pizza cutter and cut about 14-16 1/2″ strips from the dough.

And now, for the moment of truth, check out this quick video for an explanation on how to easily lattice a pie.

What did you think? Easy peasy? Here’s where you should be at now:

The last step is to take your sauce and carefully pour it over the top of the pie.

Now pop your pie in the oven at 375 for 40 minutes. You might want to put another pan under your pie as well to catch any drippings.

And here’s your pie hot out of the oven.

I just love the way pouring the sauce over the top caramelizes the crust. You’ve got to taste it to believe it. Totally kick butt.

I am linking this recipe up to Hearth and Soul and Tasty Tuesdays.