French Apple Pie

Guest post from Candi: I’m a stay at home mommy to 3 children.  I went from a full time career as a Credit Analyst to a full time career as “Hiney-wiping-nose-cleaning-mommy-referee”.  I love cooking, baking and tweaking recipes for my picky eater (my hubby!)  I love to save money and I’m always looking for a bargain.  And in my free time I love to scrapbook, but who am I kidding, what mother has “free time”?!?!

INGREDIENTS:

For the filling:

• 1 9″ pie crust
• 8 cups thinly sliced peeled apples
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 Tbsp all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp salt

For the streusel topping:

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup cold butter, diced
• dash of salt

DIRECTIONS

If you are going to bake this pie immediately, then preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Place prepared apples into a large mixing bowl; set aside. In a small bowl, combine sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt and sprinkle over the apples, tossing so all the apples are coated in sugar mixture. Pour apples into prepared pie crust, mounding the apples in the center of the pie shell; set aside. In the same small bowl, mix together the streusel topping ingredients until they are crumbly. Sprinkle this mixture over the apples in the crust. Bake at 425 degrees F for 12 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F and bake 25-40 minutes longer until apples are tender with pierced with a fork and juices are bubbling. Cool pie on a wire rack and serve warm. 8-10 servings.

— OR —

Freeze this pie unbaked for best results. Wrap it well in freezer wrap, then label and freeze. I double wrapped the pies in plastic wrap and then doubled wrapped them with tin foil. To thaw and bake, place frozen pie on a cookie sheet. Cover loosely with foil and bake in preheated 350 degrees F oven for 40 minutes. Then remove foil and bake 35-40 minutes longer until the pie crust and topping are golden and the apples are tender. Let cool on wire rack and serve.

I have to tell you I baked this last night and it took about an extra hour after removing the foil. The best way to tell if it’s ready is by checking the softness of the apples, and the bubbling that’s going on. Make sure you let it rest for out of the oven for about 20 minutes so the pie is easy to cut and handle.