Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.  I stayed in Half Moon Bay with 20 of my family members at a very nice hotel so I had a buffet Thanksgiving dinner, which oddly enough did not include pumpkin pie... So as soon as I got home 3 days later I busted out the giant can of pumpkin puree and got to it.

This post is not going to include a recipe because I just boring and used the recipe on the can with one exception: I didn't use the full 2 cans of evaporated milk, I just used 1 and a half, which I find often works better.

I used Libby's pumpkin puree and the recipe can be found here: Libby's Pumpkin Pie Recipe.

It didn't totally feel like Thanksgiving to me because most years I am used to slaving away in the kitchen all day and when it is finally time to eat it feels very rewarding. But my family usually has the same meal on Christmas Eve so I will have that to look forward to!

I have many things to be thankful for this year: my great new school and education I am receiving (Lewis & Clark College), my friends, my supportive family, good health, the Giants winning the World Series, and much more! I hope you all have many things to be thankful for as well.

The pie disappeared pretty quickly to no surprise!

In a few days I will be making a cake for two of my friends at school who recently had birthdays so keep your eyes peeled!

Have a great Tuesday afternoon and Happy Baking!

Easy Apple Crumb Pie

My aunt kindly invited me over for dinner last Friday night and offered up her kitchen for me to make whatever my heart desired.  It was so unbelievably nice to have a healthy home-cooked meal for the first time in awhile as well.  This is my go-to easy dessert that I make for last minute dinner parties, etc and it is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

The apple crumb pie is super simple and I always cheat and buy a pre-made pie crust from the store because I never seem to be able to make the dough far enough in advance.  So sorry to the puritans out there but this was some good old Marie Callendar's frozen pie crust.

It requires 5-6 decent sized apples of your choice.  My aunt Kim had some apples that she was given by a friend from their garden, so they were very organic!  The apples are coated with flour, cinnamon, brown sugar, allspice, vanilla, and lemon juice.  Then, instead of the standard crust topping I used a crumble topping, which I love. 

This pie does not take long at all to make.  Probably about 30-45 minutes to assemble and additional cooking time.  This recipe is from a blog I really enjoy called, Baked by Rachel.

I also apologize because as I was making this at my aunts I did not have my camera and had to use my iPhone so sorry if the picture quality is terrible. 

Ingredients:

For the filling: 

5-6 medium-sized apples

1/2 cup of brown sugar

2 tbsp. flour

1 3/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. allspice

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tbsp. lemon juice

For the crumble topping:

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup melted butter

Directions: 

For the pie crust:

I bought a pre-made frozen pie crust that does not need to be pre-baked, but it is smart to poke the crust with a fork to avoid creating air bubbles. 

For the filling: 

Peel the apples, core them, slice into small pieces and place in a large bowl.  

Prepare the dry ingredients in a separate bowl: brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and allspice. 

Pour the dry ingredients in with the apples slices and mix in well so that the mixture is evenly coating the slices. 

                                          

Pour the lemon juice and vanilla over the mixture and stir in well. 

For the crumble topping:

Prepare the oven to 425. 

In a medium-sized bowl combine the dry ingredients: flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.  

Melt the butter fully in the microwave, let it cool, and pour it over the dry ingredients.

Mix thoroughly (using hands if necessary) to reach a crumbly consistency.

Assembly:

Pour the apple slices into the pie crust and pile up high! They will shrink down so don't even worry.

Then crumble the topping on top of the apples until you are satisfied with the coverage amount. 

Bake at 425 for 20 minutes, covered with foil.  After this amount of time remove the foil, reduce the temperature to 375 and bake for another 30-35 minutes.  When it is done, when you stick a toothpick into the pie, the apples should be soft. 

Enjoy! Again, this is super easy and super delicious and I hope you all try it out! The pictures do not do justice to how amazing this really is, so you will just have to take my word for it.

Happy baking!