My Nana used to make pies all the time... she made apple pies from scratch using the apples from her tree in her backyard, and she made pumpkin pies for the holidays too. My mom has never really been much of a baker though... she excels in the cooking department, but since she doesn't have a sweet tooth either, she doesn't make baked goods all that often.
I would say that one of my all time favorite desserts is home made apple pie, nice and warm, right from the oven, with vanilla ice cream melted all over it. Mmm. So, it has definitely been a goal of mine to learn to make an apple pie from scratch.
Over the summer, at one of our small group social events... home made pies came up in a conversation, and a few of us talked about getting together and baking pies in the fall, once apples were in season. A few weeks ago, we realized it was time to make pies, so we planned a time to get together at Abi's house and work together to make lots of pies.
I have to say, I was pretty nervous that I was going to screw things up. I've never made a crust from scratch before... I hardly ever make cakes from scratch! What can I say, box mixes are great! I made my crust/pastry dough ahead of time, and was for sure that I'd screwed things up, but when I got to Abi's house, Rachel assured me that my crust was just fine! Phew.
Rachel had brought a handy little tool with her... it peeled, cored and sliced our apples for us! It was fabulous... until I broke it. Lucky for us, Abi's engineer husband, Ben, was on hand to fix it, and we only had to hand peel a few apples. I did manage to accidentally "peel" my finger nail off in the few minutes that we were hand peeling. At this point, I think everyone was ready to have me sit back and watch instead of participating, but I was determined to get my act together. Ben brought back the fixed apple tool, and we were back in business.
In just two hours, the four of us... Abi, Rachel, Rachel's little sister, Hannah and I... made 8 pies! We made so many so that we could freeze some whole, and have them on hand for future desserts, the holidays, etc. We did put one in the oven right away so that we could taste test, and of course, it was delicious!
I took my two pies home that afternoon... but only one made it to the freezer. Oops! One went straight in the oven, and Dan and I have been enjoying home made apple pie for the last few days! :)
Baking a pie from scratch was a heck of a lot easier than I thought it would be, and I'm totally into it now. I even got my own apple peeler/corer/slicer! I just need to get my own rolling pin now, and I am all set! I know, I know... who calls themself a baker but doesn't own a rolling pin? I'm working on it. One thing at a time.
Hand peeling apples
Rolling out the pie crust
Ready to go in the oven!
The finished product! DELISH!
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