Apple Pie For Lunch

We have an apple orchard in our neighborhood. They have desert apples on them. Desert Apples become ripe in June, they are tart with a hint of sweetness. I kind of think of them as a Granny-Smith/Golden Delicious mix. The orchard is small, maybe just ten trees or so. The kids love to go pick the apples because that means Mom will be baking. Plus, it's fun.

Here is a little spelling tip: Dessert has two s's because you would like TWO helpings of dessert. Desert  only has one s. At least, that's how I remember it.  We made two apple pie's from our apples and a German Apple Puff Pancake that was AMAZING. We ate the rest of the apple's. I usually eat an apple everyday. I love apples.

This is my favorite cookbook. Hands DOWN! It has pictures as you go along of what you are making and what it is supposed to look like at crucial steps in the process. Now, my Grandma makes THE BEST apple pie I have ever had. No one can make an apple pie like my Grandma but when I asked her for her pie crust recipe she said it has a pinch of salt and about half lard, half shortening there were no SPECIFIC measure's in her recipe. I need to be able to measure out ingredients because I am NOT THAT GOOD. However the pie crust recipe in this cookbook is golden brown, flaky and delicious. It turns out every time for me, you just have to be careful in this ARIZONA HEAT because this pie crust has to stay COLD to be able to work with it effectively. As soon as the crust is room temperature it sort of falls apart. I have to work fast because I tend to have some perfectionist tendencies when it comes to dessert's. I want them to look and taste perfect.

This is the German Apple Puff Pancake. You cook the apples down, add the batter and then bake in the oven for about 20 min. You then flip the pancake over onto a plate and serve in slices. It was really good.

This is the first apple pie that I made. It came out of the oven at about noon and our whole house was filled with the smell of apple pie deliciousness. My kids were begging me for a slice and so I decided we would have, APPLE PIE FOR LUNCH! You would have thought my kids had just won the lottery over here! There eye's lit up and there were screams of delight. It was so yummy.