Scratch-made Apple Pie (method)
I have heard some people say that when you make apple pie from scratch, you HAVE to pre-cook the apples for the filling. Not so. I like my apple pie to be made from scratch, hold together well enough to slice and serve, but not too well set up because I like it to still be soft and squishy and fall apart without too much difficulty.
How to:
Get the ingredients together for your preferred pie crust recipe, plus apples (I prefer to use crisp apples that are red with some yellow on the peel, like fuji or rome) ...plus apple pie seasonings (such as cinnamon, cloves, ginger, maybe mace or something more if you like) ...plus sugar, and, very importantly, cornstarch. (if you don't have a preferred mix of spices and amounts for them, pick a recipe you like and follow those amounts. I measure 'to taste' but generally use about twice as much cinnamon as other spices, and mostly just ginger and cloves for that. (maybe about a half or full teaspoon of cinnamon, and a quarter teaspoon of each of the others? Depends on how much spices you like in your pie. If you aren't sure, use less spices than you think you need and pay attention to the amounts so you can adjust to your liking the next time.) (don't add cornstarch yet)
Peel and slice up your apples (4-5, depending on size of apples and pie dish) ...as you add each sliced apple to your big mixing bowl, sprinkle some sugar on it, and maybe give a stir, because the sugar helps prevent the slices browning while you slice more apples. Also, the sugar draws some juice out of the apples while they sit. So, let the sliced apples and sugar sit while you mix up your pie crust, and if you want, you can add the apple pie spices to marinate with the apple slices, or add later. (don't add cornstarch yet)
Get your crust mixed up, rolled out, and lining your pie dish. Then, you take your apple slices (with sugar and spices) and give them a good stir, and (VERY IMPORTANT) DO NOT just dump it all into your pie shell. Scoop out the apple slices, leaving the liquid in the bowl. Fill the pie shell to mound up higher than the top of the pan, but don't pack it down and if you ended up with more apple than fits in, don't try to make it all fit, just use as much as you need to fill the pie nicely.
NEXT IMPORTANT STEP: take some of the spiced apple juice left in the bowl (for a deep dish pie, I use about maybe 1/2 cup, or just whatever is left in the bowl) and (with room temp juice) THEN add some cornstarch to this juice. I use generally between 1-2 tablespoons of cornstarch (for a deep dish), depending on how set up I want the pie to be. If I weren't doing deep dish size pie, I'd probably make sure to not use more than 1/2 cup of juice (or a little less, like maybe 1/3), and only about 1 tablespoon of cornstarch. Again, this is to your liking, so keep track of how much you use, and then you can use more or less on the next pie you make, depending on how it comes out and how you want it to be.
Mix the cornstarch into the juice as well as you reasonably can without heating it; (I use a fork) and try to get lumps out but as long as visible bits of cornstarch are very small, don't worry too much. Then drizzle the spiced-apple-juices-with-cornstarch mix over your apple slices in the pie shell, roll out a crust top for your pie and seal the edges together using your preferred edging. For the pie crust recipe I like, the pie bakes about 350 degrees (F) and once the pie is nicely browned on top, I look at the glass bottom of the pie dish to make sure the bottom looks like it is starting to brown. If it isn't yet, I cover the top of the pie with foil so it won't brown much more, and bake the pie a little longer. Ovens vary (especially at different altitudes) and especially if you bake deep dish pie, it's extra important that the bottom crust gets cooked through, so that's why I like a glass pie dish.
Admittedly, sometimes I don't seal the crust edges well, and some juices leak out during baking, but that's why I like to put some parchment paper on a cookie sheet, under my deep dish pie.
It may be messy, but it's guuuuuud.
