#2-Bake-In-Apples Pie

Idea came from Domestic Dilettante

When four-year-old Girl Child calls and says, "Mom, I'm coming to your house and we're making apple pie." any mom would do what I did, run out to buy the stuff to make her apple pie! Since this is my first post, and I've been eyeballing these little beauties for months now, I thought this would be the perfect apple pie for us to make.

What you'll need:
                 4 large Granny Smith apples that can stand on their own
                 ¼ Cup sugar
                                  1 Tablespoon brown sugar
                                  1 Teaspoon cinnamon
                                 










  (Four year old Girl Child Optional)

Steps:

Preheat oven to 375

Cut tops off apples and scoop out the insides. Because Girl Child has an unnatural fear of seeds ending up in her pie, we opted to discard the scooped apples for three medium Granny Smith apples instead.

Add the sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon to the bowl and fold ingredients together until combined.

Optional Step:

Have Girl Child taste apple mixture and add additional cinnamon and sugar if needed. (We got an, It’s Perfect!, with the suggested amounts so we’re good.) Once you have the mixture to your liking, fill hollowed apples.

Roll out the pie crust (can use homemade, but to cut down on mess and frustration, we went with a boxed one), and using a pizza cutter, slice into ¼ inch stripes for the lattice pattern to cover tops of apples and place in a backing dish with just enough water to cover bottom. (Note: Stripes are slightly larger than recommended -- Girl Child determined that’s the size they needed to be.)

Cover with foil and bake for 20-25 minutes, then uncover and cook for an additional 20 minutes until crust is golden.

What ours looked like:

Difficulty level:

This gets a 3.5 on the difficulty scale. They’re not hard to make but Granny Smiths are a firm apple and getting them scooped out without breaking the outside is, well, a pain in the . . . hands.

Impressions:

Boy Child was not happy that he couldn’t try this new treat (he’s allergic so can’t have them), 

but a few mini pepperoni perked him right up.

Girl Child devoured her filling and asked for more.

Though we had fun making our Baked-In-Apple Pies, this is something we’ll have to save for special occasions. The filling is fantastic, not too sweet and lots of cinnamon-y flavor, but the texture of the baked apple wasn’t a hit.

That's it! Have a great meal and express your saucy side!

Laura