I love my kitchen.

Its not the largest kitchen, but it has all that I need.  I can usually be found at any given time of the day either staring into the fridge or pantry, thinking about eating or thinking about making something to eat.

That’s usually followed by me slaving away at my trusty stove.

When I was a child I never understood why my mom spent so many hours in Macy’s on 34th street browsing the cellar, it was irritating.

But Alas…fast forward 14 years and I spend my days doing the very same thing-browsing the cellar at Macy’s.  I’ve accumulated so many kitchen gadgets due to my mini “obsession”.   My kitchen is filled with multiple cutting boards, baking pans, casserole dishes, utensils, graters, appliances and so much more….I’ve had to resort to setting up a bakers rack in the garage to store what isn’t used on a daily basis.

My favorite appliance!

Today I added a new piece to my collection, a pie dish.  Many of you are probably puzzled that I didn’t own a pie dish, but in my defense I don’t make pies very often.  My kitchen is still a work in progress, hence my days spent browsing the Cellar at Macy’s.  With that pie dish I made a pie, a Great Apple pie.

A pie in the making.

I’ve had to exercise strength beyond my capacity in order to resist eating that pie while styling and taking pictures of this masterpiece for my blog.  The resistance is over…I’m off to enjoy a slice with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream and homemade whipped cream.  Bon appetit!

I used Gala and Granny Smith Apples

Great Apple Pie

adapted from Allrecipes

1 recipe for a double crust pie*

1/2 cup butter

3 tbsp all purpose flour

1/2 cup white granulated sugar + 1 tablespoon for sprinkling

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup water

6 granny smith, peel, cored and chopped

2 gala apples, peeled, cored and chopped

1/2 tsp apple pie spice

Melt butter in pan, stir in flour(mixture should be smooth)  Add white sugar, brown sugar and water; bring to a boil.  Reduce and simmer for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and set aside.

Mix chopped apples with apple pie spice. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.   Roll pastry into a 2 circles big enough to cover pie dish and hang over the sides.  Place 1 circle of pastry into pie dish.  Fill with apples.  Gently pour the butter sugar mixture over the apples.  Cover with second pastry and tuck in the edges to seal.  Cut holes on  the top crust, this allows the steam to escape.  Sprinkle 1 tablespoon over crust.

Bake in preheated oven for 15 mins.  Reduce heat to 350 and bake for an additional 45 mins.  Remove from oven and cool before cutting.

*Feel free to use store bought pie crust.  I used a recipe from The Pie and Pastry Bible.  I added apple cider to the crust in  place of water.