Today I noticed that there were quite a few bruised apples in my fruit bin.

I didn’t want to toss them out, so I decided to make a homemade apple pie.

It really doesn’t matter what kind of apples you have.

Bruised Apples

Ingredients

• 6 to 7 Apples, any variety
• 1 Cup of Sugar
• 2 Tablespoon of Flour
• 1/4 Teaspoon of Cinnamon
• 1/2 of a Lemon Juice plus Lemon Zest
• Small 1/2-inch Fresh Ginger Root, peeled and diced

Directions for Preparing the Apple Pie Filling

1. Wash apples, remove apple cores, peel the skins off.  Also cut off any bruised areas.  Cut apples in wedges.

Slicing the Apples in to Wedges Peeling the Apples

2. Add one cup of granulated sugar and two tablespoons of flour to the apples.

3. Sprinkle cinnamon over the apples.

Lemon Juice and Zest

4. Add the juice of half of an organically grown lemon plus about a teaspoon of diced lemon zest.  The lemon will help keep your apples from turning brown while you make the pie crust.

5. Add the freshly diced ginger root.

6. Mix the ingredients up well.

Recipe for Pie Crust

I’ve talked about making an apple pie before using basic pie pastry. I just never cared for pie pastry made with butter.  I use vegetable shorting for this pie crust.

This is my mother’s recipe for pie pastry.

Ingredients for a Double 9-inch Pie Crust

• 2 1/4 Cups of All Purpose Flour
• 3/4 Teaspoon of Salt
• 3/4 Cup of Vegetable Oil
• 6-7 Tablespoons of Cold Water

Directions for Making Pie Crust

1. Combine flour and salt in a mixing bowl and mix together.

2. Add vegetable oil, blend the ingredients together until it resembles coarse bread crumbs.

3. Sprinkle on the water one tablespoon at a time, stirring gently with a fork after each addition.  Add just enough water for the dough to form a rough mass.

4. Place one piece of wax paper on your counter top and put about half the dough on the floured wax paper.

5. Flour the top of the dough and add a second piece of wax paper.  Roll the dough out slightly bigger than the pan you are going to use.

6. Place the bottom pie crust in your pan and trim the excess dough.

Pie Dough in Pan Fresh Apple Pie Filling

7. Add the prepared apples to your pie pan and dot with a few small pieces of butter.

8. Roll out the top lay of pastry and place over the top.  Crimp the edges of the pie.  With a sharp knife, cut about three slits in the top dough layer to allow steam to escape.

9. At this point, if you don’t want to add dough cut outs, bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes.  When done, the juices will begin to flow out of your pie crust and it will be nicely brown.

Directions for Leaf and Acorn Pastry Cut Outs

I wanted to make this pie a little special by adding a pretty leaf and acorn design to the top of the pie.

Decorative Pastry Leaves and Acorns

1. I used mini cookie cutters to cut out some leaves and acorns from the left over pastry dough.  It also helps to lightly dust your cookie cutter in flour before cutting.

2.  Use a sharp knife to add some veins to the dough leaves.

3. Attach pastry cut outs with water and a small pastry brush.  Then bake as directed above.

 

Decorative Top of Apple Pie

This photograph shows the pie ready for the oven.

The apple pie turned out great.  It had a lot of flavor to it.  I might next time add more apples and pay a little more attention to the leaf and acorn cut design.

Farmhouse Magic Blog hopes our Readers enjoy this apple pie recipe.

Yum!

Homemade Apple Pie with Leaf and Acorn Cut Outs