Apple Pie

Bill and Kayleigh both have work and school today but I got half day off for the holiday.  I had planned from the beginning to go grocery shopping this afternoon.  It seemed like a good idea to leave that until today so that we could do more fun things on the weekend.  I finished that pretty quickly since the store was deserted and thought I would come home, go for a run, and then bake a pie.  Next thing I knew, I had completely skipped the run and went straight for the pie baking.  Oh well, can't win them all!  Actually the pie will be done at 4 PM so I have time to get the run in.  I have a sneaky feeling it won't happen though.

This is a plain old apple pie but we love it.  The filling part is from Lee Bailey's "The Way I Cook" although it is a really basic recipe that I probably could have come up with on my own.  He calls for butter (or margarine in my case) to be placed on top of the filling but, frankly, I forget every single time so I figure it isn't necessary.

My mom gave me the pie crust recipe when I went away to college.  The funny thing is every time she has pie at my house, she always says, "I have to get your crust recipe"!  She swears hers never tastes like mine. I posted the crust recipe back in June but I'll repeat it here so you don't have to go look for it.

Apple Pie:

Pie crust:
2 2/3 cup flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup oil
6 tablespoons non-dairy milk

Mix together the flour and salt.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil and milk.  Add to the flour mixture and stir with a fork.  Cut in half and roll the crust between wax paper.

Place the rolled out crust in a pie plate.

Filling:
4 cups peeled and sliced apples
1 cup sugar (*see note below)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Zest of half a lemon
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Mix all filling ingredients together.  Place in the pie crust, heaping slightly in the middle.  Roll out the second pie crust and place on top.  Crimp the top and bottom crusts together.  Cut a few slits in the top crust to let out the steam.

Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes.  Lower the oven to 350 degrees and bake for 30 more minutes.

NOTE: I usually cut the sugar in half when I'm using regular sugar.  This time I used coconut nectar though, which seems to be much less sweet so I used the full cup.