Apple Pie and Fall Memories

The sense of smell plays such an integral part in our lives.  Scent has the ability to conjure memories and transport us back in time.  Soon after the pie was in the oven, the kitchen was filled with the scent of cinnamon and apples, and my mind was filled with wonderful childhood memories of fall and apples.  I grew up in the beautiful state of Vermont and as a child I remember every fall going with my parents to the local apple orchards to pick bushels of apples!  It was always so much fun.  The air was crisp, the apples were delicious, and trees were fun to climb.  I even lost my first tooth in the apple orchards, while eating a big juicy apple.  After a fun day at the orchards, our bellies full of apples, we headed home and then the work began for my mother as she baked apple pies and made apple sauce.  On a Sunday afternoon, stocked with apples for the car ride, we would take our annual road trip in the back roads of Vermont to view the exquisite, brilliant colors of the fall foliage spread so vibrantly across the mountains in hues of reds, oranges, yellows and greens.  Each year it was breathtaking and something we all looked forward to.

I hope this recipe will bring wonderful memories to you as you bake it in the oven and you breathe in the wonderful scent of apples and cinnamon.  Enjoy!

 What memories do you have of fall and apples?

Little Pie Company’s Sour-Cream Apple-Walnut Pie

•  ¾ Cup Sour Cream
• 1 large egg
• 2/3 Cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3 lbs. tart apples, peeled, quartered, cored and cut into ¼ inch thick slices (about 10 cups)
• 1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell

 Topping:

• ½ cup all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ cup cold butter or margarine, cut into small pieces
• ¼ cup walnut pieces, chopped coarse

 Heat oven to 400 degrees

Wisk sour cream and egg in a large bowl until blended.  Wisk in sugar, flour, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Stir in apples.  Spread in unbaked pie shell, mounding in center.

To make topping:  mix flour, sugar and cinnamon in a medium sized bowl.  Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Stir in walnuts.

Sprinkle evenly over filling, then press down lightly.

Bake 50 to 60 minutes until topping is dark brown and apples are tender when pierced.  (If topping browns too quickly, drape a piece of foil over the pie.)

Cool on wire rack.