Apple Pie

OK so I make like one apple pie a year. That means half the time, LIKE TODAY, I forget what the heck I did last time and where I got the recipe and how long to cook the crust so I end up with undercooked crust and it's just the saddest thing ever. So here is the recipe so I will get it right next time:

PIE CRUST (from Martha Stewart)
makes 2 8-10 inch pie crusts

The trick with pie crusts is 1) keep everything cold and 2) try not to work the dough any more than you absolutely need to.

1 cup butter (2 sticks) plus more for pie plate
2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling out dough (I usually use 1 1/2 cups white and 1 cup whole wheat flour)
1/2 t. salt
1 t. sugar (leave out sugar if making a savory pie)

-- cut each stick of butter into 8 pieces, refrigerate until needed
-- Place the flour, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl and mix to combine
-- add the chilled butter. Using a pastry blender, chop the butter into the flour mix - the mixture should resemble coarse meal with small pieces of butter, the size of peas, visible.
-- Drizzle 2 T. ice water over flour-butter mix, blend, repeat with 2 more T. of ice water. Keep adding T. of ice water until the dough looks like it will barely stick together. Squeeze a little bit if you must but don't touch it too much with your hands at this point. The dough will get a bit stickier as it rests.
-- divide dough into 2 pieces, flatten into disks, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.
-- dust a work surface with flour. Roll out, each disk makes 1 crust.

APPLE PIE FILLING
adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie (above)
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 6 tart apples - peeled, cored and sliced
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon whiskey (can substitute 1 t. vanilla extract)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (225 degrees C). Fit bottom crust into a 9 inch pie plate.
2. In a small bowl, mix together sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Place sliced apples in a large bowl and sprinkle with sugar mixture. Toss until apples are thoroughly coated. Spoon apples into pan.
3. Dot apples with butter or margarine, then sprinkle with whiskey. Cover with top crust. Seal edges and cut steam vents in top.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Lower temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and bake an additional 40 minutes. Serve warm.