"McDonalds or homemade?"

I've never made a pie.

Ever.

Ironic, huh? I cook and bake almost everything under the sun that I can, but I've never tried a pie.

SO, in order to pop my pie cherry (insert Warrant song joke here), I decided I had to go all out.

I had to make it completely from scratch. Pie crust and all.

And it had to be apple.

>.<

So, I sent Kyle out to get me the apples and I searched for a recipe. I like AllRecipes because of the variety of recipes, plus the 5 star rating system. It really helps me filter out what I want. But I'm going to repost the ingredients and such here, so you don't have to go all over the interwebz.

*I baked this in a casserole dish..because I don't have a pie dish. I don't suggest doing that.*

Homemade Apple Pie

Pie Crust:

I had NO idea what I was doing, so I watched this video. I had to double the recipe to be able to do the lattice top.

2 c. flour

8oz. butter, COLD and diced

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. sugar

ice water

Add all your dry ingredients together.

Using a fork, cut the butter into the dry ingredients.

Add the water (do NOT add the ice to the mix, just the water) by the tablespoon, until it starts to pull away from the object you're mixing this on/in. Use as little water as possible.

Watch the video for kneading technique and such. It's REALLY great and easy to follow

For the lattice top:

I didn't use a ruler like this video suggests. But I used a pizza cutter. :) Savvy, no?

Innards:

Recipe on AllRecipes.

1/2 c. unsalted butter

 3 tbsp. flour

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. packed brown sugar

1/4 c. water

8 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut

Cinnamon (this is not listed in the original recipe, so it's optional, but I sprinkled cinnamon all over my apple slices and mixed to coat them evenly before I added them to the pie)

Melt your butter in the pan. Add flour to thicken it up.

Mix in both sugars and water. Bring it to a boil. Reduce heat, and let it simmer for 5 minutes.

Line your pie pan with your pie crust.

Fill the crust with your apple slices. It's going to bulge at the top a bit.

Cover the top of the pie with the lattice top.

Pour your caramelized liquid over the top SLOWLY. You want it to kinda seep through the slits of the lattice top. But be careful. You don't want it seeping OFF the pie.

Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Turn the oven to 350 and bake another 35-45 minutes.

So, since this was my first time baking a pie, I'm going to review the recipes all one-by-one.

Pie Crust:

Amazing. Flakey. Perfect. Baked evenly, too!

Pie Innards:

Words don't even DESCRIBE the amount of deliciousness. I do recommend that you let it cool, then put it in the fridge prior to serving. It was a bit runny.

All in all? This is definitely my go-to apple pie recipe.