It may not be fall according to the calendar yet, but in Nanaimo fall is already here. The apples on our huge apple tree have been coming down in buckets since Mid August.
Since we have so many apples I thought it was about time to begin the fall apple baking.

To get things started I made an apple pie. I hadn’t made an apple pie in years, so wanted to find a recipe that appealed to me. I searched online, but found nothing that I liked, so I came up with my own recipe.

My pie turned out to be amazing! The crust was perfectly flakey, and the pie was everything an apple pie should be and more. It had the perfect level of sweetness to it. The brandy extract that I used was my secret ingredient that took my pie to a whole new level of yummyness. The pie was eaten up quickly, so I will defiantly be making another one soon!

Apple Pie

Crust (makes 2 crusts)

2 cups all purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
¼-½ tsp salt
6 tbsp margarine
½ cup skim milk
2 tsp white vinagar

Pie Filling

About 3 cups of apple peeled and diced
2 tbsp flour
2/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp brandy extract or brandy
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease pie plate

To make the crust: In a large bowl add the: flour, salt, and sugar, and mix well. Cut in the margarine. Add the vinegar and milk, and knead the dough into a ball. Divide the dough in half and using a rolling pin roll each ball into a round pie shaped circle. Place one rolled out crust onto prepared pie plate. Set the top crust aside. In a large bowl add the: apples, 2 tbsp flour, white sugar,  cinnamon,  nutmeg. Stir to coat. Now add the butter (softened), the brandy, and vanilla extract. Stir to coat. Pour the apple mixture into the pie crust in the pie plate evenly. Cover with remaining pie crust dough. Seal the top. Cut a pattern into the top of the pie with a knife (I just used random knife cuts). Bake for about 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly golden on top. Serve warm with vanilla frozen yogurt. Enjoy.

This afternoon I was craving some dessert. Since there was nothing in the house to satisfy my desire for a fruity dessert, I decided to make something. I didn’t really know what I wanted to make except that it needed to have berries in it. After searching many food blogs and food related recipe sites, I came up with berry pie, as my chosen dessert. Since we didn’t have that many berries left I decided to take a risk and mix the berries (strawberries and blue berries) with banana, something I had never done with pie before today. The result was the most amazing pie I have had in my entire life! I was in complete banana berry bliss.

Here is my recipe adapted from this triple berry pie recipe.

Banana Berry Pie

Crust

2 cups all purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
¼-½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
6 tbsp margarine
½ cup skim milk
2 tsp white vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in the margarine. Add the milk and vinegar. Knead the dough until a soft ball forms. Divide the dough into two parts, and roll out the dough into pie plate shape. Place one half in the pie plate. Save the other half for the top of the pie.

Pie
1 cup berries
1 large banana
1 cup white sugar
2-3 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
½ cup all purpose flour

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Pour onto pie crust in pie plate. Place the top prepared pie crust on pie and seal. Perforate the pie top. Bake for 50 minutes in your preheated oven. Enjoy.

Pear Pie

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tbsp sugar

¼-½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

6 tbsp cold olive oil margarine

½ cup skim milk

2 tsp white vinegar

2 cups peeled sliced pears

1/3 cup sultana raisons

½ cup brown sugar

¼-½ cup all purpose flour

¼ tsp nutmeg

2 tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp ground cloves

2 tbsp dark rum

In a bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the margarine. Add the milk and vinegar. Mix/knead dough until a soft ball forms. Divide ball into two pieces. Roll one half out for the bottom crust. Place in pie pan/plate. Roll out the other half. Save for the top of the pie.

Combine all filling ingredients in to order listed in a bowl. Mix well. Then add on top of bottom of pie crust (in pie pan.

Place the top half of the crust on top of the filling/ Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for about 40 minutes or until slightly golden.

Enjoy

The result, below is an image of the pie. It was super yummy. I had it warm out of the oven. It is not too sweet. The proportion of crust to filling is perfect. The crust is soft, and tender, and a little bit flakey. I don’t think you could find a better combination for pear pie!