Homemade Apple Pie with Fresh Apples!

Picking Apples

It is the apple harvest season! My parents have several apple trees that were loaded with apples this year.  It is such a fun family activity to pick fresh apples. You can find an apple orchard near you at  Taste of Home.com.  Pillsbury and Taste of Home are sponsoring Love the Pie baking demonstration events across the country.

My mother, sisters, and I were able to make & can apple sauce and apple pie filling to use throughout the next year.  Hurray!  We have also made fresh apple pie- Yummy!

Baking Apple Pie
Apple pie is definitely one of my favorites.  It is especially rewarding knowing that you picked the apples!  There are a lot of good apple pie recipes to choose from.  I tried an apple pie recipe from Pillsbury.  Here are a few other recipe ideas for the apples you pick this fall:

Festive Apple-Berry Pie
Topsy-Turvy Apple Pie
Easy Apple Pie Fold over
Cinnamon-Apple Pie with Carmel-Pecan Sauce

Pillsbury and  My Blog Spark provided me with a "Love the Pie" Prize pack (pictured above).  They also gave me a "Love the Pie" Prize pack to give to one of my readers and asked me to write a review on the Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust.  I usually make my own pie crust, so I was interested to see how it turned out.

Go here to enter to with the "Love the pie" Prize pack!

Apple Pie Filling Ingredients:
6 cups thinly sliced, peeled apples (6 medium)
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425°F. Place 1 pie crust in ungreased 9-inch glass pie plate. Press firmly against side and bottom.

Peel, core and slice apples in thin slices.

In large bowl, gently mix apples with other filling ingredients

 Spoon into crust-lined pie plate.

Top with second crust. Wrap excess top crust under bottom crust edge, pressing edges together to seal; flute.

Cut slits or shapes in several places in top crust.  I like to attempt to cut the shape of an apple.  :D

Cover edge of crust with 2- to 3-inch wide strips of foil after first 15 to 20 minutes of baking to prevent excessive browning. 

Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until apples are tender and crust is golden brown. 

Pie Crust Review:
I am a big fan of making things from scratch.  Growing up, we spent a lot of family time in the kitchen baking together.  I do not feel that making one or 2 pie crusts from scratch takes a huge amount of time.  For that reason, I am not sure if I would purchase rolled refrigerated pie crust on a regular basis. 

However, the refrigerated pie crust was very simple and tasted great.  It was nice to be able to make a pie without the mess of the dough.  My husband was a huge fan of having fewer dishes to wash!  I had never used a rolled pie crust before.  I do prefer the rolled refrigerated pie crust to the refrigerated ones that come in the tin pans.  The rolled refrigerated pie crust allows you to make the pie just the way you want it- so it really taste & looks homemade.

If I am ever cooking a large number of pies, buying a pie crust would definitely be a time saving option.  I will also be keeping my eyes open for coupon deals on these pie crusts.  An apple pie would make a great homemade treat for a holiday get together this fall, and I could use a refrigerated pie crust and canned pie filling to make a pretty quick pie!