You guys! I made a pie! I found The best apple pie recipe from one of my favorite bloggers and went for it. I made a pie! It was the first pie I ever made and it was pretty much perfect! It may not seem like a big deal to you unless you don’t bake. Then I’m sure you feel me. I embarrassingly admit that, in all of my 45 years, I have always been afraid to make a pie. I guess a better word for it might be intimidated.
If you have been following along with the blog for any amount of time you know that I am a DIY junkie and have attempted and successfully achieved a lot of things I never thought I would even try. Give me any power tool and I will go for it, but please don’t make me make a pie.
I do a lot of things but baking is not my strong suit. I have a lot of “squirrel” moments and I get distracted and I just get distracted whether it be with my measurements or with the amount of time something is in the oven. Let’s just call it Baker’s ADD. So, even though I do occasionally bake with some success, I typically choose NOT to do it on a holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas. I always buy an apple pie from Costco and it is always guaranteed to be oh so delicious. So, when I told the family I decided to make a pie for Thanksgiving they all gasped. Literally. Then I heard “mom, why would you do that?” and “mom, how could you do that to us?” and it was quite comical. Thanks for the vote of confidence, fam!!
I found a beautiful recipe from Miss Mustard Seed for her No-Fail Apple Pie . I admire the way everything she does always seems effortless and perfect and was inspired by her to try to create something beautiful that could come out of my oven, too. This post is not a tutorial on making the pie with a recipe, I will leave that up to her talent and you can find the recipe here. It is just to inspire you, if you don’t bake, to give it a try. I hope that you will see that you CAN do hard things!
I didn’t want to embark on this endeavor alone so I called for backup. My daughter and I spent the evening baking and doing this thing together and it was such good time with her. She is actually a better baker than me so I knew she would enjoy it. It was fun to learn how to do something new together.
Things I learned while making this pie:
Apparently you have never had nutmeg if you have never had fresh nutmeg. It was a lot more potent than the nutmeg from the spice aisle. Whole Nutmeg was a little hard to find in the grocery store and required me asking someone for it. You may not think it is hard to find.
I didn’t have to add too many things to make the filling and most of the ingredients I already had in my kitchen!
Granny Smith apples are the key. They are tart and firm. Always peel the apples and slice them thin. This step probably took the longest.
Once you mix the ingredients for the filling with the apples, microwave the apples to ensure that the apples are done when the pie is done. It also keeps the filling from being too watery.
I used pre-made Pillsbury pie crust. If it’s good enough for Miss Mustard Seed, it’s good enough for me! We cut the pie crusts into strips and made a basket weave design for the top. We took some of dough to create flowers and leaves for the decoration on top of the weave. Miriam (MMS) has some really good advice for doing this well.
I sprinkled some sugar and cinnamon on top, put it in the oven and hoped for the best.
I was so excited when I pulled THIS out of MY oven! I didn’t want to cut into it for a couple of reasons. For one thing, it was so pretty and I was so proud of it that I didn’t want to cut it. But I also didn’t want my family to be disappointed. I was proud of what I had accomplished (small wins, guys) and wanted to have it for Thanksgiving dinner but the family was eager to try it. We took a family vote and everyone wanted me to serve it right then. And even though it was intended for Thanksgiving, I couldn’t resist their excitement to try it. They bit into it and LOVED it!! They ate the whole thing that night! What a fun memory for all of us. They said now that this is our new tradition…mom’s pre-Thanksgiving homemade apple pie!
It may seem silly, but to me this is all about more than just pie. It is about the way that we encourage one another, help one another and then enjoy little victories together. What do you think of my apple pie? Be kind, lol! I hope you have a great week!! I will be back with part 4 of my master closet makeover so stay tuned!
If you missed it, head over to read:
Where my closet collapsed in part 1
How I prepared to build such a massive project in part 2
How the vision started to become a reality in part 3
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