Happy Pi Day!

3/14/12. Aka Pi day!!!! The day that all of us amateur cooks need to take some chances and learn to make a real pie. Of course this day really has nothing to do with math WHATSOEVER....
Confession: I have NEVER even attempted to make a pie before. NEver...evereverever. I'm not sure why I put it off for so long, because after I made this one I realized its really not as difficult as everyone says. Just one more reason NOT to let others decisions influence your own. Anyway, after much thought and consideration I decided to make the good ol' classic apple pie. YUM. I made my own pie crust recipe for the bottom, and made a pecan crumble on the top. Confession #2: I spent $4 on a tiny bitty little bag of pecans. Shhhhh. They were SO worth it ;)

Overall this pie turned out FANTASTIC if I do say so myself. The only change I made was to add some cinnamon to the crumble topping as well as the apples. You can never have too much cinnamon right? ha.

Another idea is to buy some caramels (or make your own) melt them and drizzle over the top. Ohhhh so yummy!! :) 

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!! 

Before Baking

After roommates/friends devoured it! It was rather popular :)

Streusel Apple Pie: (I cut the recipe in half...I only needed one pie)

Ingredients

• 2 ounces butter
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 9 apple - peeled, cored and sliced
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 recipes unbaked pie shells

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 C).
2. Prepare the topping by combining the butter, brown sugar, flour and chopped pecans. Cut in all ingredients with pastry cutter until pea-sized. Set aside
3. Combine the apples, sugar, flour and cinnamon. Toss gently together and set aside.
4. Place apple mixture in unbaked pie shells. Heap the apples up high in each shell and fill completely. Sprinkle topping on top of each.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 50 minutes. Do not allow topping to get too dark.

Easy Pie Crust:

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, chilled and diced
• 1/4 cup ice water

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
2. Roll dough out to fit a 9 inch pie plate. Place crust in pie plate. Press the dough evenly into the bottom and sides of the pie plate.

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