
Our day trip to Oak Glen was an apple adventure! We TASTED lots of different varieties of apples.

They sure made it easy to buy bags of apples!


I don't think I've ever SEEN so many apple pies!

Now there is good apple pie, and not-so-good apple pie. We brought this pie home, and had great hopes.

Look at all the air under that big dome top.

We cut and tasted a piece. The crust was tasteless, and the apples had SO much cinnamon, we couldn't even taste the apples. I love cinnamon, but this was NOT a good piece of pie! The whole thing went straight to the trash! At least we didn't waste any ice cream!

So there we were, all geared up for apple pie, and so disappointed. Brad started coring and peeling, and I quickly put together my FAVORITE cheddar pie crust for a rustic apple pie. After an hour of chilling the dough, we were ready to go.



Apple-Cheddar Rustic Pie
From: Better Homes and Gardens Our Best Holiday Menus 2007
2 2/3 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 c. sugar
3/4 t. salt
3/4 c. butter
4 oz. grated cheddar (one cup grated)
3/4 c. cold water
2 1/2 lbs. apples, cored and cut into slices (6 Granny Smith or 8-9 honeycrisp)
1/4 c. sugar
2 T. lemon juice
2 T. flour
1/2 t. cinnamon
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 T. suagr, or sanding sugar
Pastry:
1. In a large bowl, stir together 2 2/3 c. flour, 1/4 c. sugar, and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until pieces are pea-sized. (I do this with my mixer.) Stir in cheese. A tablespoon at a time, stir in ice water, moistening a section of the flour mixture with a fork. Push moistened pastry to side of bowl. Keep repeating until all the flour mixture is moistened. Form pastry into a ball, then flatten into a large disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refridgerate at least an hour or overnight. Let pastry sit at room temp a few minutes before rolling it.
2. Preheat oven to 350. On a slightly floured surface, roll pastry to about a 15-16 inch circle. Carefully transfer pastry to either a 10-11 " oven-proof skillet, or a 9-10" deep dish pie pan.
3. For filling, in a large bowl, toss apples with 1/4 c. sugar, lemon jiuce, 2 T. flour, and cinnamon, until combined.
4. Mound filling into crust, and bring up edges of pastry toward center, pleating dough as necessary to keep it flat against the filling. Brush top of pastry with a egg, and sprinkle with sanding sugar (or regular sugar). Cover filling that is showing with foil, and bake for 30 min. Remove foil, and bake 30-35 minutes more, until crust is golden.
5. Cool slightly, and serve warm or at room temp. If desired, serve with vanilla ice cream.
Now THIS was a good apple pie!
