HOW TO MAKE A SIMPLE APPLE PIE

Goodbye August and hello September!!! To say we're excited about fall over here would be an enormous understatement! After all, we are most definitely autumn people. Don't get me wrong, we enjoy the other seasons too and so many of the beautiful, unique benefits that accompany each one, but there's something extra special about fall. And, it has nothing to do with pumpkin spice EVERYTHING either, although we do like pumpkins. We get all the feels when the cooler temps arrive, the cozy sweaters come out, the trees begin their spectacular color show and the earthy smell of burning wood is in the air. Ahhhhh... it's just the best!!!

One of our favorite fall, family outings is day-road-tripping to the North Carolina foothills or mountains and picking apples at an organic orchard. It's a convenient, scenic two or so hour drive from where we live. Bonus gift is viewing God's spectacular showcase of the cycle of life manifested through the changing leaves. This begins at the higher elevations first and the colors always seem far more vivid and brilliant up there.

Once we return home with our bags of apples, we soon realize it will be almost impossible to eat our harvest apple-by-apple before they spoil. We're then tasked with searching for ways to use and preserve our sweet, crisp, delicious fruit. Although apple butter is always on my list, my kids usually have a different idea about how the apples should be used. This typically involves desserts and baked goods, like this American classic - apple pie! 

I'm sharing a super easy recipe I made with my youngest son who is nine. For this pie, we were pushed for time and wanted to keep it simple so we purchased a Pillsbury deep dish pie crust two-pack. I love making our own pie crust, but sometimes the store purchased ones are fine too. We used one curst for the bottom and the second one for the top. Once the crusts are at room temperature, it's super easy to remove one from the aluminum pan, roll out and cut into strips. My son actually had fun doing this part so what you see in the photo is his version of a lattice crust without the criss-cross, but just the cross :). We served the pie hot and topped our slices with vanilla ice cream. So simple and so gooooodddd!

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SIMPLE APPLE PIE

Serves: 6-8 Prep Time: 45 minutes Cooking Time: 35 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• 8-10 medium apples (about 8 cups or 4 pounds), peeled, cored and sliced

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

• 2/3 cup sugar

• 2 teaspoons cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice, freshly squeezed

• 2 tablespoons butter

• 1 tablespoon coarse sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Place prepared apples in large saucepan. Sprinkle flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and lemon juice over apples. Cook over medium low heat until the apples begin to soften, about 10 minutes. Stir a couple of times while cooking.

2. Pour cooked apple mixture into a 9″ deep dish pie crust. Spread evenly with spoon. 

3. Dot top of apples with the butter cut into small pieces.

4. Top with either second, full pie crust or create lattice top with rolled pastry dough.  Please see above note for how we used store bought crusts for our version of a lattice top.

5. If using a full pie crust, cut slits in top with a knife.

6. Sprinkle top with course sugar.

7. Bake at 425 degrees for 35 minutes or until crust is golden brown. 

8. Allow to cool slightly before slicing.

9. Serve with vanilla ice cream and enjoy!