September's Dessert of the Month

September REALLY got away from me. I had bronchitis for about 3 weeks. Kaela had a stomach flu, Matt and Dean both had a bad cold.

With all the illness and work, I didn't get much of anything else done! Sooooo, I pulled out a family favorite for Dean for his dessert this month.





I thought I'd share it with you all. (I came up with this because I hate pie crusts that get gooey and I hate mushy overly sweet cooked apples.) This pie does NOT use lemon juice because granny smith apples are so tart so pay attention to the part with the apples.

Granny Smith Apple Pie

Ingredients:

4 regular pie crusts, thawed...yes FOUR.
8 granny smith apples
1 cup sugar
2 tbls flour
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt
2 tbls butter, cubed
1 egg
1/8 c. milk
cinnamon/sugar mixture

Take out your pie dish and spray with pam. Take 2 of the pie shells and carefully tear in half. Press into the bottom of the pie dish, being careful of the edge, you want it to stay intact. It WILL break so just press it back together as you go...no biggie.

Poke the bottom and sides with a fork and bake until light brown (350 oven.) This can take awhile because of the double crust in the bottom of the pan. Check it in 5 minute intervals. Mine usually takes 15-20 minutes.
Remove from oven and set aside.

Mix dry ingredients and set aside.
Beat the egg and milk together and set aside.
Get out a LARGE bowl to have handy.

If you do the apples this way, none of them will turn:
Peel and core the apples. You don't want a mushy pie do you? Neither do I, so instead of making thin slices I use an apple sectioner. ( If you don't know what that is, click HERE.) The best part is this goes FAST and you don't have to clean a food processor up later.

As you cut up the apples, throw them into the big bowl.

When you have half the apples in the bowl, pour half the dry ingredients in the bowl and mix them up. Repeat using the other half of the apples. Once ALL apples are in the bowl, add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix well.

Carefully pour/arrange the apples into the crust. They will mound up like a volcano. Once placed, put the little cubes of butter in crevices between the apples.

Then take the other 2 shells and tear them in half and arrange the crust over the apples. Try to match up the edge as you go.
Don't worry about the tears...this isn't a beauty pageant. Besides, it bakes up really pretty anyway.
Also, it is OKAY that the pie is a towering volcano...as the apples cook, it will settle. Go around the pie crust edge and press the two edges together.

Don't forget to make little vents in the top.

Brush the crust with the milk, egg mixture. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Bake at 350 for 1 and 1/2 hours depending on your oven. Periodically check to make sure the crust isn't getting too brown. About halfway through the baking, put foil around the edge of the pie crust so be safe. You may even need to cover the entire pie crust.

Enjoy!