Learn to Cook: Apple Pie

My grandpa is the ultimate pie maker. He even will gather apples from their tree and strawberries and rhubarb from their garden. He makes his own crust and goes the whole mile. I was lucky enough to convince him to share his secrets with me because I wanted an apple pie. Unfortunately for you guys, the recipe is a secret, so I can’t share everything with you. But I will attach links to recipes that look similar from that I found from Pinterest.

I started out by making the crust. This one looks like it would be simple to make but still yummy. Mine was light and flaky also. Then there was also the peeling and cutting of the apples we bought (because unfortunately there aren’t any on the trees in February). This was definitely the most time consuming, boring part. But, I used a potato peeler to get the skin off the apples which worked out really well! After that we mixed the apples with sugar and cinnamon and all that good stuff. Finally it was time to put it into the crust and add some of the really awesome glaze we made. (Really stack your apples nicely in there or else when it’s in the oven the pack down and your pie decompresses and isn’t full and fluffy looking). My favorite part was doing the lattice work on the top with the crust and covering it in the special drizzle. This recipe for the apple pie filling is VERY similar to what we did.

Doesn’t it look delicious? It was sooo good. If I were you, I would follow these two recipes that I linked above and try it out. They aren’t the exact recipes I used (have to keep the family secret a secret), but they are very, very similar.

From these first few weeks of the independent learning project, I have already learned a lot about cooking and a lot about myself as a learner. When it comes to cooking, I have learned things like what spices go good with what, and I have learned that it is okay to alter things and do what sounds good. If it doesn’t work, it isn’t the end of the world. I’ve loosened up as a learner. I have become more okay with experimenting and having to do trial and error instead of getting things exactly right the first time. I’ve learned that I am such a visual learner as well as hands on.

I’ve had so much fun with this independent learning project already and I cannot wait for the weeks to come and to see what awesome recipes I end up finding, making, and falling in love with.