I love to bake. I love to cook. I love food.  But for years, I’ve been hesitant to bake a pie.  I tried to make a couple of pies many years ago, and each one came out disappointing- the crust lackluster or the filling to runny.  I’m a bit of a foodie perfectionist, so rather than fail – I procrastinated.

Then this summer, I was inspired by a friend to give pies another try. Initially, the goal was to make a pie by the end of the summer, but come Labor Day weekend, I still hadn’t produced a pie.  So on Labor Day, I sat down with my laptop and googled pie crust and pie recipes, and started my pie making quest.

The first step was figuring out which kind of pie crust to make. I tried an all butter crust recipe, an all shortening crust recipe, and finally found my winner in this flaky butter/shortening mix pie crust recipe by the Magpie Bakery.  Recipe link here.  I’ve made a variety of pies including blackberry blueberry, bourbon pecan, apple and pineapple (thanks to our friends the McCormacks for their family recipe).

I won’t glamourize the process. It really is true that practice leads to better results each time.  I’ve made 9 pies in the last 2 months – that’s nearly a pie a week! The latest one is this dutch apple pie using hierloom Arkansas Black apples that we picked while visiting our favorite Oak Glen farm over Thanksgiving weekend.  This is a pie I’m proud of, and that’s why I’m sharing the recipe. I hope you enjoy it as much as my family did!

Dutch Apple Pie (inspired by this recipe by Joy1996 on Genius Kitchen) – Makes a 9 inch pie.

Ingredients:

• 1 homemade pie crust (I like the Magpie recipe), or 1 ready-made pie crust
• 6 cups peeled, cored, sliced baking apples (we used Arkansas Black, with wonderful flavor!)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice 
• ¹⁄3 cup granulated sugar (if you prefer sweeter pies and/or your apples are not very sweet – the original recipe uses 1/2 cup) 
• ¹⁄₄ cup packed brown sugar 
• 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
• ¹⁄₂ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon nutmeg

Topping:

• ³⁄₄cup flour  
• ¹⁄₄ cup granulated sugar 
• ¹⁄₄ packed brown sugar 
• ¹⁄₃ cup butter, room temperature  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F (If using convection setting, reduce heat to 350)
2. Fit pie crust into pie plate.
3. In a large bowl, mix sliced apples, lemon juice, both sugars,flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. Our into into the prepared crust.
4. Prepare topping: In a medium bowl, with a pastry blender or a fork, mix flour, sugars, and butter until coarsely crumbled. Sprinkle evenly over apples.
5. Bake at 375°F for 45-50 minutes.