Thanksgiving Pies

When I was a kid, the day before Thanksgiving was always a half day of school.  We would head home early, put on our aprons and help my mom make pies.  This was a big deal to my little seven-year-old self, because this was the one day of the year that my Mom had a marathon day of baking (something she didn't love doing, but was willing to do for the sake of her guests).  I always enjoyed baking as a kid, so I loved this day.

Fast forward twenty-some years later, and I still love the marathon day of baking.  I'm not sure there is anything more quintessentially "Thanksgiving" than the smell of apple pie baking in the oven.  Bring.it.on.

A few years ago, I went searching on allrecipes.com, and found the world's greatest apple pie recipe. It actually tastes like heaven.  My dear friend Sarah works at allrecipes.com, and she gave me the pointer of always reading the first three reviews before making a given recipe.  I found one review to be particularly helpful, so I'm including that below:

Courtesy of allrecipes.com

So let's get started.

You'll Need:

• 2 pie crusts, 9" each.  I like Martha Stewart's Pate Brisee or you can use a store bought crust
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 Tbsp flour (realizing as type this that I forgot the flour - fingers crossed it still turns out okay)
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 Tbsp vanilla
• 4 granny smith apples, peeled cored and sliced
• 4 honeycrisp apples, peeled cored and sliced

Follow the instructions listed on the recipe and the review listed above to ensure success baking your masterpiece.  I love making sure that my pie looks as nice as it tastes, so I'm a bit meticulous when it comes to creating the lattice top.  Use a ruler to measure out each piece, cut using a fluted cutter (what are these actually called?!), and place them carefully on the top.  I also like to add a little decoration, so I added a little leaf shape around the perimeter.  I love how  beautifully it turned out, and it smells insanely good.  We can barely wait until dessert tomorrow!

As I've mentioned in previous posts, my precious M has an egg allergy, so she is unable to have egg or any egg product at all.  Because pumpkin pie has egg in it, I figured she would need to stick with the apple pie.  But after a little research online, I found a recipe for no-egg pumpkin pie.  I cannot vouch for it yet, as I've never tasted it.  However, because I know so many of you have little ones with food allergies as well, I'm including a link to the recipe here, so you can give it a shot.  I'll be sure to report in on it's taste soon!

Happy baking :)