Copy Desk Cookoff: Apple Pie for the Holidays

 

Oh, holiday season! The season of gifts, family, friends, smiles and lots and lots of food! I love this time of year. We gather up with all of our family members and smile cheerfully as if we’re happy to see them, but we’re really happy to see the feast sitting on the dining room table.

However, as we get older a problem occurs: the dish your mom brought is no longer considered the dish from your mom, your dad and you.

Aunts and uncles start to ask you “Well, what did you cook?” Although they ask it with a smile and a laugh you know they’re thinking “No really, what did you cook?”

I decided that this is my year. I’m going to woo my family with a homemade apple pie, recipe courtesy of my lovely Co-Resident Assistant, Christine Retta.

First, you will need a frozen pie crust, a pie top, brown sugar, white sugar, a little bit of salt, some flour, cinnamon and the most important ingredient of all: apples. Make sure to get good baking apples like Macintosh and Granny Smith, not Red Delicious.

Cut your apples into slices, then begin adding your ingredients. Start with some brown sugar, add some white sugar, just a pinch of salt, some flour to make it rise and cinnamon (which can be added based on how much you enjoy cinnamon).

As you add the ingredients, take your hands — freshly washed preferably — and mix all the ingredients in. Somehow like magic the ingredients are going to get all gooey, covering the apples in a thick sweet cinnamon glaze.

After the apples are all mixed up, pour them into the pie crust and cover the apples with the pie top. You can neatly fold the ends of the pie top to make a fancy design or you can just cut the ends off. Once the pie top is on cut a few slits into it. I like to take this as an opportunity to show off my drawing skills and create a unique design on top of the pie.

Now you’re ready to put it in the oven! Bake it for about 40 minutes.

Your pie should come out a nice golden brown.  Let it cool and you are ready to serve up some homemade apple pie for the holidays.