As you all know, I started this blog with the sole intention to document our travel escapades. Now here we are, with this unprecedented request for self-quarantine and essentially zero travel, wondering what to do with our time. I do plan to make some posts about local areas, but for now, I thought it would be fun to talk about a hobby other than travel that I enjoy.

Baking is definitely not a craft that I cultivated from a young age. Shout-out to my mom who always baked amazing treats regularly, but I never really had an interest in cooking or baking. For the last few years though, I’ve really started to enjoy baking more and more and find it really fun to make delicious food and share it with others (still hate cooking).

Maybe you don’t consider yourself much of a baker either, but you might also be getting a little bored sitting at home during this quarantine time. I wanted to share one of my all-time favorite recipes that was given to me several years ago by my dear friend. If you’re a fan of la pomme, then this recipe is for you.

Directions:

Line your pie plate with crust, and use a fork to poke holes to give that bad boy some room to breathe. Peel and dice the apples into a bowl, and mix with 1/2 cup sugar and spices. Scoop the intensely aromatic apples into the pie plate. In a separate bowl, sift together 3/4 cup sugar and 1 cup flour for the crumb topping. Use a dough blender to cut in 1/2 cup butter until it resembles a crumb mixture (You can do this part without a dough blender, but you’ll hate your life, I promise.). Now sprinkle that beautiful crumb mixture on top.

Bake at 450° for 10 minutes. Then bake at 350° for 40 minutes. Highly recommended to serve warm with classic vanilla bean ice cream, but it’s delicious no matter how you serve it.

As promised, the homemade pie crust recipe:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup and 1 tbs shortening
• cold water
• Combine flour and salt, and cut shortening into flour mixture with a dough blender. Add cold water 1 tbs at a time until dough forms. Then just roll it out!

As always, feel free to comment and share this recipe with your friends. Let me know if you tried this pie or have recipes of your own that you want to share!