The Baking Bride: Mom-in-Law-Pleasin' Apple Pie

Hey kids! I've missed you. For real. It's been too long. Life does that; keeps us apart and then we come back together over big slice of Apple Pie. Sit down for a while, i'll show you how I made it :)

You'll be surprised to hear that this is basically the first pie I've ever made. Pies intimidate me, as a baker.. So i totally used a store-bought pie crust to ease the transition into Pie making town... Whew, what a load off.

My dear friend/basically a sister, Chelsea Lou suggested that we do our own Thanksgiving since Ben and Myself would be staying in StarkVegas for the holiday. What a fantastic idea since I've always said that I'd let my sister Dee do all the holiday cookin' since I prefer baking to actual cooking any day of the week... Might as well buck up and try it for myself. It was ok, I had Chels and she's ridiculous in a kitchen... no kidding.

So here's what I did. I took care of the dessert. And a couple other supporting roles in the meal. It was an overall success.

Let's have pie!

Here's what you'll need.

5 apples, butter, white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, pie crusts (3)

*You'll also need a large iron skillet for this recipe*

**Be awesome and whip up your own whipping cream, it's exponentially better than cool whip**

Let's do this the old fashioned way. It's totally more fun. Get your knife out and peel those apples. Do it.

Then slice em' up real thin and toss the creepy core parts..

I put the slices in some water to keep them from turning brown.

Now get your skillet out and put it on medium heat. Melt that whole stick of butter. Yes.

Put 1 cup of brown sugar straight into the melted butter.

It will look like this. Double yes. Spread it out evenly to cover the bottom of the skillet.

Remove it from the heat and put your first pie crust directly on top of this mixture.

It's ok to get in there to keep it pretty.. you know.. just wash your manos first... no biggie.

Take half of your apple slices out of the water and shake them like a polaroid picture.. Or something like that. Just get most of the water off.

Mix together 1/3 cup sugar and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon together.

Then sprinkle all of it over the apples you've just so neatly spread out in the skillet.

It looks so yummy. Let's just eat it now? No? You'd rather finish it and bake it??

Fine.

To resist temptation, put your second pie crust over your mixture.

You know what's next. Repeat. Get the rest of the apples out and spread them just like before.

Make it pretty. No one like ugly pie... Wait.

Do the same sugar/cinnamon mix and sprinkle again. Cover with final pie crust.

I added this step in so it's totally optional. If you're not into egg washing your pies, I say, "that's cool." We can still be friends. But if you are... scramble the heck outta the egg and lotion up the pie. It just helps to brown the pie and make it shiny... I also sprinkled some sugar crystals on top for dramatic effect.