My First Apple Pie - Experiment

I love to make pies! So I volunteered to make the pies for this years festivities. This Thanksgiving I had a request for apple pie by Jeff, my brother in law, who evidently loves apple pie. I am usually not a fan of apple pie for various reasons. The crust is usually too dry and overcooked because the pie cooks so long to fully cook all the apples. Then the pieces of apple are normally too large so they don't cook properly and pull out of the pie when you try to eat it, leaving part of your slice of pie empty. I admit I don't choose apple pie to eat if there is another option, so I haven't tried very many apple pies. However, because I've never had an apple pie I thought was really good and learned Eddie felt the same way, I was eager to take on the challenge of making an awesome apple pie.

I searched for about a week online, reading reviews and ratings, and looking at butter content. Jeff told me that a good apple pie is all about lots of butter. When I saw the "Elegant Farmer Apple Pie" recipe at http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/gale-gand/apple-pie-baked-in-a-bag-recipe/index.html I knew I had found the recipe I totally wanted to try. You bake the pie in a paper bag! The logic behind it was so clear to me that I thought it could make the crust great.

The pie turn out tasting very good, but not so pretty. The pretty factor had a lot to do with my apple pie making inexperience probably. I have to admit that a scoop of vanilla ice cream was required to really make the pie good for me. I will try the recipe again. Next time I probably won't cook it as long and add a little more sugar to the filling. The apples were on the verge of being over cooked, but could easily be sliced through when eating which was a plus for me. I used Granny Smith apples. There is so much butter in the crust that it made it very soft and reminded me of a cobbler crust. The top crust fell during cooling when the apples settled, which disappointed me. It was very full of apples and not much extra filling. The apples punctured the crust during settling because the crust was so delicate.

Jeff kept a few pieces for himself before I took the remaining pie home so I took that as a good sign that it turned out pretty well.