Oh man, do I love me some Thanksgiving.  Its easily my favorite holiday, in fact some years I squeeze a second thanksgiving in around February just cause.  This year was pretty quiet for us, we spent about 8 hours of the day scouring our old apartment, so in preparation for this, I made our thanksgiving dessert last night.  And since it was just the two of us, I thought I’d whip up a batch of apple crisp that could be easily reheated in single servings.  Good choices were made.

Cinnamon Apple Crisp
Serves 8: Makes a 13×9 pan, or 8 12oz ramekins

3.5 lbs granny smith apples, about 8, peeled and cored
1 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 cup flour plus 1 tbsp
3/4 cup old fashioned oats
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup cold butter, cubed
1/2 tsp salt
Preheat your oven to 425°.  Butter your baking dish (or ramekins).

Start by prepping your apples.  Peel and core your apples, then slice into 1/4 inch thick slices.  I like to then halve these, because I prefer smaller, bite sized pieces of apples in my crisp.

In a large bowl, mix together the apples, brown sugar, 1 tbsp flour and cinnamon and stir to coat evenly.  Pour into buttered baking dish, or evenly distribute into ramekins.

In a medium bowl, mix together 1 cup flour, white sugar, oats, and salt.  Using a fork or pastry cutter, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles a course crumble.  Top the apples with the crumb mixture.  Go ahead and heap it on there.  It’ll cook down once it hits the oven.

Pop that crisp into the oven for 20 minutes at 425°, then reduce the temperature to 350° and continue baking for another 30 minutes until the apples are tender, the filling is bubbly and the topping is golden brown and delicious.

Let this cool for atleast 15 minutes, then top with a giant scoop of vanilla ice cream and dig in.

I mixed together two recipes to concoct an apple crisp that has all the right components.  The brown sugar creates a really gooey filling, and offers a nice balance to the extremely tart granny smith apples, rather than using a sweeter apple in the mix.  I personally don’t think it’s a crisp unless the topping contains oats, but if you’re not a fan, you can remove them entirely, and up the flour to a full cup.  But seriously, don’t.  The oats add a wonderful al dente chew to the crisp topping, contrasting the soft velvety apples.

And the other great thing about the single serving ramekins, you can keep them in the fridge and then pop them into the microwave for 2 minutes and they’re as good as if they just came out of the oven.  Happy Thanksgiving and Enjoy!!

Call me crazy, but I’ll take a slice of pie over cake any day of the week. Perhaps its my Pennsylvania Dutch heritage but I take my pie-making very seriously. I stick to my Grammy Sherlock’s tried and true pie crust recipe. It’s hands down the most tasty, flaky, and foolproof recipe I’ve ever used. And as long as you keep in mind the 3:1 ratio of flour to shortening, you can easily multiply this recipe as many times as you like. So I figured I’d walk you through my take on the classic apple pie, complete with Grammy’s perfect crust.

For a double crust pie:

3 cups AP flour
1 cup crisco shortening
pinch of salt
pinch of sugar
3/4 cup ice cold water
1 TBSP cider vinegar

Start by measuring out your flour and stirring in the salt and sugar in a metal bowl (this will help with fast chilling later). Add in the cubed crisco shortening (I highly recommend the one in the bar rather than the tub for easy measuring and cutting). Using your hands, break down the crisco into the flour until the crumbs reach pea-sized proportion. Seriously, don’t waste your time with a pastry cutter or a fork. Just use your hands. And don’t worry, it’s impossible for all the crumbs to be the same size, you just don’t want any crumbs larger than this:

Congrats, you reached the end of step 1! Stick that puppy in the fridge to chill for at least 30 min. My grandmother often keeps dough in this state ready to go in the fridge, especially around the holidays. I haven’t tested it for longer than 2 days myself. Just make sure the container is airtight so your crust doesn’t pick up the smells of your leftovers. Not very yum. ONWARD!

In a measuring cup, mix together the cold water and vinegar. (Any pale colored, fruity vinegar will suffice, such as white balsamic or even rice wine vinegar.) If you’re a slow mixer, drop an ice cube into the water to keep it extra chilled. I started skipping this step cause the ice cube always ended up in the mixing bowl. Slowly pour in the liquid, mixing the dough with a fork. As larger clumps form, push them off to the side of the bowl so that you’re always moistening the crumbs. Once you’ve added about 90% of the water, start forming the ball of dough by hand. You may not need all the water for the dough to come together, but I almost always do. Halve the dough, rolling each half into a ball, and stick it back in the fridge.

Step 2 done! Now while that chills for atleast 15 min, we make our pie filling!

Classic Apple Pie Filling:

4 cups peeled, cored, and sliced fuji or braeburn apples (any mild, semi-sweet apple)
2 cups peeled, cored, and sliced granny smith apples
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 TBSP flour
pinch of salt

One thing I really can’t stand is a watery apple pie. Giant chunks of apples also rate low on my apple pie list. So to combat this, I accidentally stumbled upon a technique I use every time I make an apple pie. I very thinly slice the apples (typically with the slicer blade in my food processor to speed things up), then let them macerate in sugar and a tiny bit of lemon juice for about 20 min.

You’ll be amazed how much water is pulled out of the apples. Right before filling the pie, I drain off all but 1/8 cup of liquid and mix in the cinnamon, nutmeg, flour, and salt.

Now roll out the first chilled crust and fill with the apple mixture. I tap down the apples so they’re layered close together, cause I like a dense filling. This also prevents the apples from sinking down while the pie is baking, creating that weird pocket between the upper crust and the filling. What can I say, I’m picky about my pies.

Top with the 2nd rolled out crust. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m all about a thick-edged crust. To close, I like to trim the crusts till they’re about 3/4 inch off the edge of the pan. Then I roll the bottom one up over the top crust, twisting and pinching as I go to create a tight seal.

Then I finish it with the classic wavy edge.

Right before the pie hits the 375° oven, be sure to cut in a few steam holes in the top. I also like to brush my pie with milk (an eggwash works as well) and then sprinkle with a large-crystal sugar.

A little over an hour later your pies will be ready. You won’t necessarily see the bubbles since you pulled so much liquid out, so I often check the temp through the steam holes and make sure the filling reached about 175°.

And now the hardest part… waiting for them to cool.