I am a creature of comfort and stability. When I don’t have those things is when I feel most stressed or anxious. Dating is neither of those things I crave and usually causes me to be extremely anxious.
The other day I had a “date” (I’m using quotations because looking back, it wasn’t but that’s a story for another time.) Three hours before the “date,” I had an urge to make an apple pie. I had fresh apples in my refrigerator from a local orchard and for some reason a pie is what I decided to make.
Now, I rarely make pies in my house let alone a whole pie. I really had no idea why I made this pie other than I wanted my house to smell amazing.
So I made this pie and then went on the “date” which turned out to be one of the most awkward and uncomfortable dates of my life. What’s worse: I was actually excited because the guy and I seemed to have a bunch in common but in the end (end being 9:00), it was bad. So I came home, poured myself a glass (maybe a bottle) of wine, and felt discouraged.
That is until I realized I baked myself a pie not six hours earlier. This apple pie was truly the meaning of comfort food and one slice instantly made me feel better.
While I am sure there will be many more crappy dates, I am also sure there will be delicious baked goods to comfort me. Turns out I must of known this would go poorly and decided to offset it with pie!
- Crust
- ¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons natural cane sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ stick butter
- 2 ounces cream cheese
- 2 tablespoons- ¼ cup cold water
- Filling:
- 5-6 Large apple
- ½ cup natural sugar
- ½ cup sucanat
- ½ cup flour
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- Topping:
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup butter, softened.
- Peel and slice apples into even pieces. I highly recommend buying this peeler (but if you don’t, just attempt to get all apples at the same size.) In a bowl combine the apple pieces with the remaining ingredients. Let sit for one hour (or overnight is better!)
- To make crust, combine the dry ingredients into a bowl and cut in butter/cream cheese with your fingers (or a pastry blender.) Once butter and cream cheese are broken down to the size of peas, add water to the mix and stir/knead until the dough comes together. Place in refrigerator for 20 minutes to chill. Roll out dough into a circle and crimp into a 9″ pie pan or 11″ tart pan (my choice!)
- Preheat oven to 375˚.
- To make topping, combine sugar and flour together. Cut butter into flour/sugar until the topping looks like crumbs and butter is blended in.
- To assemble pie, pour filling into pie shell and sprinkle topping evenly over the filling. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until the top has browned and the apple filling in bubbling out the sides.
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