Apple Picking and Baking

The Husband and I were apple picking over the weekend. It's a fall tradition for us and he always appreciates the amount of baked goods that apple picking allows us to have in the house. What he doesn't appreciate is the amount of crazy parents and children that we have to contend with in order to get these fresh apples so we are in and out of the orchard pretty quickly.

The first of the baking experiments was homemade applesauce. I save my jam jars so that I can make the applesauce look more authentic. What's great about this recipe is that you just put your apples (six) into a pot with butter, cinnamon, brandy, brown sugar and just let it cook down. Any leftover bigger chunks can be mashed with a potato masher.

Next was the apple pie. I'd never actually made apple pie before and I'm not interested in making pastry from scratch so my good pal Tenderflake helped me out with this project. Other than peeling and slicing the apples, this was a really easy recipe... just add brown sugar, cinnamon, brandy, lemon juice and butter. Egg wash the top of the pie to make it shiny and you've got this: