Classic apple pie

In installment #3 of what has become a Sunday baking/crafting ritual, this weekend Christine and I made an apple pie.

This pie is made all from scratch, using Crispin and Macoun apples from the Grand Army farmer's market. I made the dough the day before using a cheese grater to shred up the frozen butter, since I don't have a food processor, and after much internet studying, butter-revelations and paranoia over the temperature of the dough we were rewarded with the flakiest buttery crust (as tasty as it is beautiful!). The whole affair took an entire afternoon, and it was almost too precious to eat (give CW credit for the raw sugar crystals and those perfect little leaves). You should have seen both of us with our cameras out taking pictures of it like the "pie-parazzi." Her parallel-post about it is here!

This is the 4th recipe I've made from the Baked cookbook, a collection of a bunch of the recipes from Baked in Red Hook, right here in Brooklyn (you can find their treats in different organic/natural foods grocery store display cases around Ft. Greene, but I've yet to actually go to the real place, maybe one day pre-Ikea?). I'm totally in love with this book though, and not just because I have Brooklyn pride (and not just because they have a second location in my home state!). Most of the recipes are rich/luxe takes on classics that feel even more authentic than the original, like super-fudgy brownies and overly-chipped chocolate chip cookies. And some of the recipes (i.e. pumpkin whoopie pies) are just complicated enough for a control-freak like me to indulge my perfectionist tendencies by making, without feeling too frou-frou.

I've been baking/crafting a lot more recently, and I thought it would be fun to start a new blog to announce progress, finished projects and whatnot. Looking forward to sharing more projects soon!