"I Love You" Pie

I believe that you can express love through actions - and baking and cooking are at the very top of my list. My other favorite love actions include giving a big hug, making a perfect jack & coke, and just being quiet and listening at times. When Josh does little things like put my coffee mug under the Keurig with a little note, bring home flowers just because, or snuggle up with me, my world lights up. It's the little things. 

I think my Grandma Shirley would smile from Heaven if she knew that I greeted Josh as he walked in the door from work today with a homemade apple pie fresh out of the oven. The entire house smelled amazing. My grandma would always bake your favorite cookies or cake, and sit there and smile as you took the first big bite. She was a love action person, and there was never any doubt that she loved us so much. 

I may have committed a sin in the culinary world, as I combined Ina's perfect pie crust with "Grandma Ople's Apple Pie" from Allrecipes, which featured a pretty lattice with a perfectly golden top. It's my very first pie, and I was thrilled that it came out of the oven very pretty and photogenic! Of course, I served my pie "a la mode" with vanilla bean ice cream. Now that my friends is pure love. 

before

after

Perfect Pie Crust

click here for recipe

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) very cold unsalted butter

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening

6 to 8 tablespoons (about 1/2 cup) ice water


Dice the butter and return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the flour mixture. Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter and shortening. Pulse 8 to 12 times, until the butter is the size of peas. With the machine running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse the machine until the dough begins to form a ball. Dump out on a floured board and roll into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.



Cut the dough in half. Roll each piece on a well-floured board into a circle, rolling from the center to the edge, turning and flouring the dough to make sure it doesn't stick to the board. Fold the dough in half, place in a pie pan, and unfold to fit the pan. Repeat with the top crust, either as lattice or one piece cut with slits. 

Apple Pie by Grandma Ople
click here for recipe

1 recipe pastry for a 9inch double crust pie (I used Ina's, shown above)

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3 Tbsp all purpose flour

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

8 granny smith apples (peeled, cored, and sliced) I used 6

*1 tsp vanilla

*1 tsp cinnamon

*dash of nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer. I simmered for 5 minutes, then off the heat add vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
2. Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.
3. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.