The Dude With the Food: Apple Pie Made Easy! [RECIPE]
One of my buddies at work doesn't bake -- in fact he hardly cooks -- but he's made two apple pies from scratch in the last 7 days and says it is so easy. Here's his recipe:
Pie Filling:
Enough apples to fill a medium-sized salad bowl. Most recipes call for 6 apples but every apple is a different size!
1 cup brown sugar
2 tbs. - 1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp. (or less) of cinnamon and nutmeg
2 tbs. white flour
- peel and cut the apples into small pieces. Size of pieces doesn't matter.
- pour all the other ingredients in and mix thoroughly
- Place in refrigerator until pie dough is in the pie pan
Pie Crust:
2.5-3 cups of white flour
2 sticks of butter or 1 cup of Crisco
2-6 tbs. of ice water
little bit of salt
- When peeling the apples, put the butter, flour and ice tray in the freezer.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- When done peeling the apples, put the ice in a cup of water.
- Then put the flour, butter and salt in a food processor and mix until the largest chunks of butter are only pea-sized.
- Add a tablespoon of ice water and mix, then another and mix until the dough will stick together in a ball, but is not sticky.
- Lay down a bunch of Saran Wrap, drop a soft-ball size amount of dough on top, add another layer of Saran Wrap, then roll out to the desired thickness.
- Carefully transfer the dough to the pie pan.
- Add the apple mixture.
- Repeat with the remaining dough and add it to the top.
Bake at 400 degrees for 30-60 minutes and allow to cool for 20-30 minutes.
Now this is the do-it-yourself version, but I must confess that Marie Calendar's ready-to-use pie dough is REALLY good. The friend making the pies said he ate HALF an apple pie made with Marie Calendar's crust in one sitting.