Day Two Hundred and Ten - Apple Pie

Dear all,

Today I tried out a wonderful recipe that Deneen had sent me from Pennsylvania and I had been looking forward to making on my day off.

We still have a load of apples left ( and more to come) so I started out with the pastry by mixing 3 cups of flour, 1 tsp of salt and 1 cup of shortening. I mixed up the ingredients with a fork and gradually added 3/4 cup of cold water that eventually left me with a slightly sticky mixture.

Next, I rolled out the pastry onto a floured board, trying not to touch the dough too much and rolling it out as thin as possible. I then put the pastry into a pie pan and went on to the filling!

This pie is all about the apples, and I cut up a few of our beautiful apples that we have in the laundry room and mixed them [peeled and sliced] up with 1/4 cup flour, 1 tsp cinnamon and them filled the crust with the fruit.

I them put more pastry on top of the apples, sealed the crust with water and cut a couple of holes on top as well as sprinkling water and sugar on the surface of the pie. I baked the pie at 400 for 15 minutes and then 350 for around 30 minutes.

And here are the pies in the oven and NOTHING IS GOING WRONG. Apart from the fact that I fell asleep immediately on impact with the sofa so Darren [my hero] valiantly stepped in and saved the pies from becoming a charred mass of pie-debris.

Here is the finished product: A pie. Hurray!

Thank you so much to Deneen for the recipe. I am going to now churn out 12 more pies for the freezer and Darren's work. I am very excited!

And in other news:

1. Our hibiscus has suddenly decided to blossom ( in October) and is looking spectacular!