I love fall

Today feels like fall.  The air has gotten cooler and the fall holiday decorations are out in the stores.  There are a lot of things that I love about the fall.  I love knitting when it is cold out while drinking hot coffee.  I love the last of the fall harvests, like pears, apples, plums and mushrooms.

I knit these little mushrooms this week and took them on my last mushroom hunting excursion to take photos.  My friend and I were so excited about finding mushrooms and taking pictures that we lost track of time and a few times where we were.  We were out in the woods for almost 5 hours.  If you are interested the pattern for these super cute little mushrooms is at Beewee.net.  She is a cool Scientist, photographer and knitter.  I love smart girls.

My dehydrator has been whirring away in the corner of my kitchen working on the last of the pears that I am putting away for the winter.  There is something about preparing for the cold weather that makes me feel happy.  I have happy memories of picking gravenstein apples in our backyard for cobbler, pies and apple sauce.  Gravenstein apples are my favorite baking apple.  They are tart like a granny smith but sweet as well and don’t require as much sugar when baking.  And they make your house smell warm, comfortable and delicious.

This is my all time favorite apple pie recipe.  I have been experimenting with a few recipes over the week.  My husbands coworkers have been the lucky recipients of the experiments and voted this one as their favorite as well.  Here is the recipe for those interesting in making their house smell like fall.

Make your favorite pie crust.
Tip: if you want to make sure that your crust is flakey, put the butter in the freezer and grate it in to your flour.

Peel and slice 8 apples for the pie.
I use 4 granny smith (they hold their shape) + 4 gravenstein (when I can find them)

Place your apples in the crust and create a lattice top.
This doesn’t have to be perfect.  You are going to cover it in your carmel sauce.  That is why you also don’t have to add any sugar, flour or butter to the apples before putting them into the pie.

Now the carmel sauce.
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 tbsp flour
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees
1. Melt the butter in a pan over the stove over medium
2. Add the flour and mix together like a rue
3. Add the sugars and the water (Keep mixing so that it doesn’t stick or burn)
4. Bring the mixture to a boil and them let simmer to let it thicken.
5. Pour the liquid over the crust.  I try to cover the lattice with the sauce.
(tip: put a cookie sheet under the pie in case of spill over in the oven)
6. Bake for 425 for 15 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350 and continue for 35 to 45 mins.
Let cool as the pie is now molten hot and release the yummy smell in your house.

Have a lovely weekend.