Homemade Apple Pie with Braided Crust

Here's another recipe in my quest to use my apples from apple picking this weekend. It's a classic from the 1980 Good Housekeeping Cookbook that my mom has.

Ingredients: 
-1 pastry for double-crust pie
-2/3-3/4 cup sugar
-2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
-1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
-1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel
-1 -2 teaspoon lemon juice
-6 -7 cups thinly sliced peeled and cored cooking apples (2 pounds)
-1 tablespoon butter or 1 tablespoon margarine
-milk

Peel and core the apples. One pound of apples is equal to three medium apples, peeled and sliced.

Mix together the sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon peel (I didn't use this) and lemon juice.

Layer half of the apples into the pie crust.

Top with half of the sugar mixture.

Top with the rest of the apples. 

They will cook down! 

Top with the rest of the sugar mixture. 

Ready for a top crust. 

You will need to cut some sort of vent into the top of your crust, I made hearts just using a paring knife.

Using the left over crust I made four braids to put around the edges.

Use thin strips.

Braid.

Then attach to the crust. 

Ready to go in the oven. 

The braided detail.

Bake for 40-50 minutes at 425.

Ready to serve. 

Braided detail. 

It's hard to go wrong with a classic recipe -- bake this apple pie, make a cup of coffee and serve it a la mode. You've earned it.