When I first started baking, which wasn’t until after I was married, one of the first things I tackled was apple pie. The reason was simple, even back then I was a slacker and I figured the old adage “Easy as apple pie” meant it was really easy and all slackers like easy…in fact, we strive on easy.
The problem was that making the filling didn’t require the skills of Julia Child, but I could never find the perfect crust. It seemed they were either too dry, too tasteless, or didn’t seem to brown properly.
My mom came up, with what I thought was the perfect solution, she used her very simple recipe for Kolachy dough to use as pie crust. I’m not sure where she got this recipe, but you can’t go wrong because it has three simple ingredients, you mix them up, and bingo…start rolling and cutting. Now THAT is a slacker cook’s dream recipe!
The other great thing about using that recipe is the main ingredient is cream cheese. Cream cheese, in my opinion, is a wonderful compliment to apples and cinnamon.
So, here ya go….
Mom’s Apple Pie Recipe
Crust:
2 sticks of butter
2 cups of flour
1 large package of cream cheese
Mix the ingredients together, roll into a ball and cover with Saran Wrap, put it in the fridge and chill for about 15 minutes. While the dough is chilling you can pour yourself a glass of wine and chill along with it…or you can put your filling together instead….
Filling:
6 to 8 tart apples (I use Granny Smith as a rule) pared, cored, and sliced. Some people prefer to make their slices thin, but I like a little “chunk” to them because when they cook, they have some substance to them. Use your own judgment here.
3/4 cup of sugar
2 Tablespoons of all-purpose flour
1/2 to 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
Dash of nutmeg (freshly ground is best, imo)
Crust…either the Cream Cheese Crust I gave you or your own recipe…or you can go the true slacker route (which I greatly respect) and buy the kind that’s already made and rolled out for you.
2 Tablespoons of butter
Combine sugar, flour, spices, and dash salt; mix with apples. Line 9-inch pie dish with pie crust. Fill with apple pie mixture; dot with butter. Adjust the top crust, cutting slits so the steam can escape. Bake at 400° for 35 to 40 minutes or until done.
Personally, I like to use those covers that you put over the edges while baking to make sure they don’t burn. I will also pour about an eighth of a cup of milk and add a dollup of butter to it and put it in the microwave at a low setting until the butter melts in the milk. I then use a pastry brush and brush over the top of the pie so it will brown evenly.
Not sure how to make those pies look like the one at the top of the page? Here’s a video that shows you how to do all that fancy-smanshy pie fluting stuff.
Oh! and I forgot to mention this! If you want to make two pies, of course, double the recipe (duh!) BUT…if you have any of the pie crust dough left over, just roll it out and cut out circles which you can put a dollop of that Solo pastry filling on top and bake at 350° on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle with powder sugar when they cool and you have some extra dessert for those who don’t like Apple Pie….you know, those Commie Pinko’s who hate America. 
Or…you can refrigerate the dough for up to a week and make cookies later in the week.
Ok…that’s it…easy as apple pie!
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I’m all about slacker cooking and the apple pie is one of the finest inventions in history, so this is like double plus unungood (I’m assuming one un cancels out the other un).
Randal- Apple Pie is one of my favorites, too, but for the life of me…I just can’t see putting cheese on it. It just sounds so gross and I know a few people who do it. It should be warm…with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Looking good Nunly.
BTW is this you?
KRAKOW, Poland — Emerging from the quiet of her convent, Sister Anastazja Pustelnik was confronted by a jarring image — her smiling face on posters plastered around town to hawk the cookbooks that have made the 59-year-old nun one of Poland’s best-selling authors.
It’s fame Sister Anastazja never bargained for when she left the material world as a young woman, expecting to toil in obscurity for God. But her ability to create easy-to-follow recipes for delectable cakes and traditional home cooking has resulted in five cookbooks since 2001 that have sold a combined 1.1 million copies in this country of 38 million.
LOL! Not me, of course, but how cool! I’ll have to add her cook book to my Christmas list. Actually, it would be fun to put some of her recipe’s up on this blog. I’d like to try them out, first. What a great job that will be…testing all her pastry recipes. I’ll pack on about 50 pounds with this blog.
Thanks for sending that my way, I love it.
Toss some walnuts and caramel in that pie and I am your slave in perpetuity.
Uppity- I also like fresh cranberries in apple pie…delish! When it bakes, however, it will be too watery if you don’t adjust the recipe for the water in the cranberries. Just use a little more flour to thicken (or you could use tapioca granules instead of flour).
cranberries & apple with walnuts are an excellent combo! I make soy & whole wheat mixed bread with them. a little brown sugar or honey too.
welcome back Nunly
Thanks, raging!
Mmmm….love the idea of walnuts added! I’ll try that next time.
[...] dessert… homemade apple pie, of course! Here’s my recipe from Eating Habits . Wow…just went over there to get the link and forgot how much fun I had writing those [...]