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Autumn is apple picking time. If there are apple orchards within driving distance, take your family on an apple picking adventure. Plan for a day of fresh air with a picnic lunch. Search for the perfect apple. Polish it until it shines and then bite into that ripe, crisp apple. It tastes so much better when you picked it yourself. Pick a few apples to eat or pick a bushel or more for fresh apples for lunches and snacks. Most orchards grow a variety of apples – Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Winesap, Rome Beauty, Jonathan, Granny Smith, and Fuji to name a few.
Most apple orchards have a stand with fresh apple cider, by the cup or by the gallon, and other apple treats. Nothing tastes better than a cup of fresh cold apple cider.
Apples provide fiber, vitamin C, and potassium.
This apple pie recipe can be made with a crust or streusel top.
Homemade Apple Pie
Pastry dough for a� 9-inch/25-cm double� crust pie� (Recipe below)
3/4 to 1 cup/180 to 250 mL sugar
3 tablespoons/45 ml cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon/2.5 ml Watkins Apple Bake Seasoning
1 teaspoon/5 ml Watkins Cinnamon
Dash of salt
6� peeled, cored and thinly-sliced tart apples (I like Granny Smith apples for a pie)
1 tablespoon/15 ml butter or margarine, cut into pieces
Sugar
Place prepared pastry dough in pie plate; trim and flute edge. Combine sugar, cornstarch, Apple Bake Seasoning, Cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. Add apples and toss to coat. Fill pastry with apple mixture. (I like the apples in my pie to be soft rather than firm so I cook the apples coated with cornstarch and seasonings in a large sauce pan for 10 minutes before filling the pastry. Stir in a little water so the apple mixture does not stick. This will make a juicy pie.)� Dot with pieces of butter.
Roll out top crust and cut slits for steam to escape while pie is baking. Arrange top crust on pie. Trim edges and flute to seal. Sprinkle top crust with sugar. Bake at 400°F/205°C for 40 minutes or till done.
For French Apple Pie with Streusel Top
Instead of placing a second crust on top of apple filling top with the following streusel mixture.
1/2 cup/125 mL all-purpose flour
1/2 cup/125 mL brown sugar
1/4 cup/60 mL butter
Mix flour, brown sugar, and butter with a fork until crumbly. Sprinkle over apples. Bake at 400°F/205°C for 40 minutes or till done. Makes 8 servings. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
Pie Crust
For one 9 or 10 inch/25 or 28 cm double crust pie
2 cups/ 500 ml flour
1 teaspoon/5 ml salt
3/4 cup/180 ml shortening ( I use Crisco)
5 to 7 tablespoons/75 to 105 ml ice water
Cut shortening into flour and salt mixture with a pastry blender or fork until pieces are the size of small peas. Sprinkle 5 to 6 tablespoons ice water over mixture and gently toss with fork to mix. Gather dough with fingers to form a ball. For a two crust pie divide dough in half. On a lightly floured surface flatten ball and roll with rolling pin to 1/8 inch thick. Roll from center to edge using light strokes to form a circle. If edges split, pinch them together. Roll pastry over rolling pin and transfer to pie plate. Adjust and fit to bottom and sides of pie plate.� Then fill with apple mixture.
____________________________________________________________________________________________� Eleisia Whitney has a Watkins Home Business. She enjoys cooking and baking with Watkins extracts, spices, herbs, and sauces for healthy meals. Eleisia publishes a Watkins Newsletter, “Around the Kitchen Table,†that brings you recipes, cooking and health tips, and contests for free Watkins products. Visit her at http://www.everydaynecessities.com/
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