Continuing Fall Traditions

Last Sunday we continued the tradition trend and used our apples to make a pie. I think it was a nice addition to the apple picking tradition. I let Mr. ATC pick out the recipe online and we headed to the store to pick up everything we needed for the pie. Here is the recipe from Here

Ingredients

         7 cups sliced peeled tart apples

         1 teaspoon lemon juice

         1 teaspoon vanilla extract

         3/4 cup chopped pecans

         1/3 cup packed brown sugar

         3 tablespoons sugar

         4-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

         1 tablespoon cornstarch

         1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping, room temperature

         1 unbaked pastry shell (9 inches)

         3 tablespoons butter, melted

         
STREUSEL TOPPING:

         3/4 cup all-purpose flour

         2/3 cup chopped pecans

         1/4 cup sugar

         6 tablespoons cold butter, cubed

         1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping, room temperature

Directions

• In a large bowl, toss apples with lemon juice and vanilla. Combine the pecans, sugars, cinnamon and cornstarch; add to apple mixture and toss to coat. Pour caramel topping over bottom of pastry shell top with apple mixture (shell will be full). Drizzle with butter.             

• In a small bowl, combine the flour, pecans and sugar. Cut in butter until mixture resemble coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over filling.

• Bake at 350° for 55-65 minutes or until filling is bubbly and topping is browned.
• Immediately drizzle with caramel topping. Cool on a wire rack. Yield: 8 servings.

The website says it should take 45 min prep and 55 min cook time. It is not lying! Seriously, I was in the kitchen for 2 hours and the pie still had about 30 min left in the oven! It was my first time making a pie, and I had to hand mix everything. Needless to say, it took a while to cut in the butter for the streusel topping.

I think I used about 6 medium to large apples. They were also a mix of Fuji and Pink Lady since we didn’t separate them when we picked them, and they are hard to tell apart. The recipe says to use tart apples. But the apples turned out fine. They were firm, not mushy-just the way I like my apple pie :)

here is a picture of our haul from the farm: 

Also the pie will be FULL. I ended up splitting the apple mixture into 2 pies and Mr. ATC took one to work. :)

Here are some photos Mr. ATC took. It was also his idea to build the apple wall. haha

And a close up of its caramel-y deliciousness. YUM 

This is seriously delicious and I will probably be making another one this week :) The cinnamon and pecan and caramel go perfectly with the apples. I would definitely recommend this recipe if you are looking for a twist on a traditional pie.

I will probably also make some applesauce since I can freeze that and use it for a while. But if anyone has any other apple recipes I would be willing to give them a try!

What is your favorite fall recipe or tradition?