Fresh, Homemade Apple Pie!

I'm a baker - I love to bake. And I haven't been able to for over a year since my cancer treatments and recovery have prevented me from doing so. But the past couple of weeks I have had a surge of energy so in honor of the July 4th holiday I took the time to make apple pie from scratch. I thought I'd share it with you.

 First, enough dough for a two-crust pie. I mixed the flour and salt and just added in the butter. 

This is my first year of using butter instead of shortening. We'll see how it turns out.

 Now adding and mixing 4-5 tablespoons of cold water.

 Rolling out the dough between two sheets of waxed paper with a little bit of flour to help it not stick.

Lifting off the wax paper on one side. I then lay it back down and carefully flip it to the other side
and do the same. This way, when I'm ready to put it in the pie pan, it doesn't stick to the dough 

when I'm trying to lift it off after centering it on the pan. 

 Voila! The finished crust! Looks good, doesn't it? Curiously enough, using the butter (and softening it in the microwave first) doesn't seem to have affected how the dough likes to stick to the wax paper. In fact, it was easier this year than any other time I have made pie dough. We'll just have to wait to see how it tastes and flakes after the pie is finished.

 

The apples and lemons, ready to go.

 Not bad at keeping a long strand of peel going! 

I remember as a child my siblings and I would watch our mother peeling potatoes. 

We were fascinated at how long a peel she would make. But after a few times of us going "Awwww!" 

when the peel would drop before it got very long she'd shoo us out of the kitchen. I can't figure out why. ;)

 All the apples are finally ready to slice!

 Going good!

 Adding the lemon juice.

 Now mixing flour, sugar and cinnamon for the filling. Mixing the flour completely with the 

cinnamon and sugar helps to keep the flour from forming lumps.

 I mix in the flour, cinnamon and sugar with the apple slices until the moisture starts showing on the apples.

 Oops! I forgot to get a shot of putting the top on the apple pie! Oh, well. 

Here I am brushing the top with milk. But before that I put little dollops of butter all 

over the top of the apples.

 

Now sprinkling with sugar.

And here's the finished product! I'll let you know how the butter crust tastes!

Thank you, Lord, for the strength and energy to do something I really love.