I just love this time a year when the apples are ready!  So many of them and so many things you can do with them.  One of our favorite things is homemade apple pies!!! But you can only eat so many apple pies at one time!  So here is what we do!

Basic Apple Pie Recipe

• 6 cups of peeled, cored and sliced apples (Save the peels and cores and apples pieces you don’t use  – I have an “Apple Jelly Recipe using the peels and cores”.
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1/3 cup of all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon of butter
• 3 table spoons of butter

1. Combine the above ingredients and put in prepared pie shell (uncooked)
2. Take the three tables spoons of butter and cut into 4 pieces and place in different areas around the top of the apple filling.
3. Place crust over top of pie filling and seal the edges with your finger or a fork.

Now at this point you can either cook the pie or freeze it:

For cooking the pie:

1. preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. over the edge of the pie crust with foil or a pie guard.
3. Brush top with milk and sprinkle with sugar (you can add cinnamon to the sugar if you like – Just a sprinkle).
4. cut out a small hole in the center of crust to vent and make 4 small slices in top of crust with a knife about 1/2 inch long.
5. Bake for 25 minutes with foil on edges of crust, Remove foil and bake for 20 to 25 minutes more.
6. Remove from oven and let rest for 20 minutes – slice and server!

For Freezing pies then baking later:

Each year I try and put up about 20 pies to eat later in the year, over the holidays and so on!  Even those cold winter nights.  So I buy frozen deep dish pie shells (they come two to a pack) and Pillsbury Pie crust (or store brand).  These are the ones you put in your own pie dish – I use them to cover the top.(These also come two to a pack).  We make this a family event, one is using the apple corer peeler slicer, the other is mixing the measuring the basic pie recipe.  We put up an additional long table or use the dinning room table and line up the pie shells and fill them all.  Then someone will place the butter and top shell on the pie and seal the edges of the pies.  Then out comes the Food Saver vacuum sealer.

I use my Food Saver vacuum sealer. But you can use Plastic wrap with Tin foil or Large freezer bags.

We place the pies in the freezer to be eaten at a later date!

Cooking a Frozen Apple Pie

1. Preheat the oven to 375%
2. Remove the pie from the freezer
3. Unwrap the pie and place on a baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper
4. Cover edges with foil or pie crust saver
5. Vent middle with small hole and then cut 4 slits about 1/2 long in crust
6. Brush with Milk and sprinkle with sugar or cinnamon sugar mix.
7. Bake frozen for 90 minutes check after the first hour.

I have tried to let them thaw out but the crust becomes soggy.