Just Another Apple Pie...

I went to my grandmother's for Thanksgiving dinner and my mom said to bring something, enough for everyone. So I thought, pie. I chose to make 5 mini apple pies and 7 mini pumpkin pies. I used chicken pot pie disposable pans so they were about that size- cute and you can eat "half a pie" without any guilt. I suppose my family hasn't had good homemade pie in a while because everyone loved it a little too much- an uncle of mine mentioned the apple pie again today (a month later!), so I figured it's blog worthy.

The crust was from a recipe I received in a cooking class a long time ago- it's flakey, buttery, and i had requests for the recipe as well as "How much butter is in this?!" from a pharmacist uncle. There's actually both butter and shortening in it but we won't mention that to him. I will post the recipe soon. As for the filling, the recipe is from Allrecipes.com with a few changes made.The reason for cooking the apples first is to prevent that gap between the apples and the top pie crust when it is done (and to give you more apple-y goodness). This is an amazing recipe and a great if you just want plain and simple homemade apple pie.

Grandma Ople's Apple Pie (with changes)
Allrecipes.com

• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
  
• 4 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced
• 4 Red Delicious apples - peeled, cored and sliced
  

1. Cook apples over medium heat with a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar for about 7 minutes until tender and "shrunken".
   
2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.If you want to brush the pie shell with this mixture, reserve some and keep warm.
3. Stir apples into cooked mixture. Fill bottom pie shell with apple mixture and top with unbaked crust. Either use the reserved mixture to brush top of crust, or brush with eggwash.
   
4. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.