As easy as Apple Pie

Hey lovely people, happy Saturday!

Hope you had an awesome week? Mine was, a lot for a lack of better words. But I got through it with the help of my amazing friends and family who are the best prayer warriors! *insert hands lifted high emoji* I'll tell you all about that soon, for now I'll just say that God's coming through for us like he always does.

So I was talking to my friend Mwaba yesterday (hey baba!) and she was asking me all these questions about being a newbie natural. Clarification on all the terms that are used in the natural world and all the products that we love/hate. She actually told me to get a post done about my hair care routine and I will, ASAP! In the meantime please be on the lookout next week for a feature I got asked to do by Esther *cheesing* who I featured on my blog a week ago in the Meet the Bloggers series. If you didn't get the chance to see it go check it out here.

Back to the title of this post, you know, in case you were wondering.*shrugs*
Yesterday, I made my first Apple Pie! *double fist pump* It turned out alright, if I do say so myself.

This all started a couple weeks ago after the cookie incident with my mom. You'll know about it if we're friends on Facebook, but long story short I baked a bunch of cookies using my trusty recipe and she ate a whole bunch then tried to blame it on me.lol.The day after that I woke up craving apple pie and googled this awesome recipe. I got it off the food network site but never got round to getting it done with all the other baking I've been doing lately, until yesterday when I decided that we needed something sweet for dessert. I told my friend Wila about it and he encouraged me to take pictures of it because I was "breaking my apple pie virginity" and it was a special day that had to be shared. (he's crazy.lol) But I'm glad he did cause now I have some pictures to share with you all.

Final Product

Recipe

Ingredients

Dough

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 4 tsps sugar
• 1/4 tsps salt (fine)
• 14 tbsps cold unsalted butter, diced
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten with 2 tbsps cold water

Filling

• 2 tbsps freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 5 apples
• 2/3 cups sugar,and some for sprinkling
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter
• 1/4 tsps ground cinnamon
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1 large egg lightly beaten

Method

 You can either make the dough in a food processor or do it by hand like I did (because love and care, that and zesco was being funny with their load shedding as always).

• Mix together the dry ingredients (flour, salt, sugar) and rub in the butter till it forms a crumb mixture.
• add in the egg mix and knead the dough together. Then wrap in cling film and leave to set in the freezer or fridge while you prepare the filling.
  
• Put lemon juice in a medium sized bowl. Peel, halve and core the apples then cut each of the halves into quarters (eight pieces of an apple in total). Add sugar and toss apples to  combine evenly.
• Melt the butter on pan at medium-high heat. Add the apples and cook, stirring untill the sugar mixture dissolves and begins to simmer (for about two minutes). Cover and reduce the heat so that the apples can cook and release all their juices.
  
• Strain the apples in a colander over a medium bowl to catch all the juice, shaking the colander to get as much juice as possible. pour the juice back into the pan and leave to caramelize (about ten minutes.
• Toss the apples with the reduced juice in a medium bowl and add the spices in. Set aside to cool completely while you set up your dough or the pie crust.
• Pre-heat your oven to about 180 degrees celcius. Cut the dough in half and on a lightly floured surface, roll each half into 12 inch disks about 1/2 an inch thick. Place wax paper on your 9 inch wide baking pan and place one of the disks onto it making sure to cover the sides as well as the base. Cool in freezer for thirty minutes.
• Place filling in the pan and slice the remaining disk into strips about 1/2 inch thick then lay the strips evenly across the pie weaving them through each other until you form a basket/lattice. Trim the excess dough and pinch the sides of the pie.
  
•  Brush the dough with the egg wash and sprinkle the remaining sugar on the top. Then pop the pie into the oven and bake for 50-60 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Serves 8-10 and it is absolutely delicious! But don't just take my word for it ;)

If you do try out the recipe please tag me in your posts on social media or leave a comment in the description box and let me know how it went. I'd love to see/hear how you all got on.
Till the next yummy recipe.

Bisous!

x