Apple pie with my daughter

 This post is a part of Kelly the Kitchen Kop’s Real Food Wednesday. 

I spent the afternoon with my daughter yesterday making an apple pie. This was no ordinary apple pie, oh no. This was our first apple pie made from the apples from our baby apple tree. These are it's first apples and they are delicious. The perfect combination of sweet and sour and just right. I know we are a little early for apple pie season, but my daughter really wanted to make one and the apples seemed ready and willing.
The time we spend cooking together always feels like a gift from heaven to me. I spent most of my childhood begging my mother to cook with me or let me cook anything at all. I had a mother (who I love with all my heart and who provided me with many other opportunity in my life other then cooking) who did not like any type of mess big or small and still to this day does not enjoy cooking, so the closest I ever got to cooking was being allowed to make rice krispies treats when I was 11 or 12. You can imagine how I feel to find myself in my own home with my own daughter sharing this beautiful process of creating food and memories together. It is like a dream come true only I am the mother this time. We have so much fun together as we add a little of this and pinch of that, talking and sharing as we go. This is a time for us to connect with each other and relax and not worry about all the bits of crumbs dropping at our feet.

After dinner last night we each took a piece of pie and can I tell you it was the best pie I have ever eaten!  We were all laughing and exclaiming about how good it was.  I think there was a bit of magic in that pie that we created ourselves. With caring hands we tending the baby tree named Apple (fittingly), with loving hands we created a pie from it's fruit, and with grateful hearts we enjoyed every last piece.

Filling: Apples, cinnamon, vanilla, date sugar, nutmeg, salt.

Here is our pie crust recipe. We adapted it from my original recipe as we did not have the type of flour that was called for. I actually think I might like this one better.  This crust will be very dark because of the color of the Teff Flour.

Gluten Free Pie Crust
(Makes enough pastry for a double crust)

1 C Teff Flour
1/2 C Organic Corn Flour
1/2 t Sea Salt
1 T Coconut Sugar
1 Egg (lightly beaten)
1/2 C Butter (or Coconut Oil if you can't have butter)
2 T Milk (add one at a time, you may not need all of it)
1 t Vanilla

Mix dry ingredients. Melt Butter and mix well into wet ingredients. Mix all ingredients together and form into a ball. (You can wrap your ball of dough in plastic and store in the fridge for a week or freeze for later.) Split ball into two. Roll out your dough between two sheets of plastic wrap. Your dough will be very fragile.(unlike normal pie dough.) You have to be careful when placing it into your pan. You may have to patch a few pieces around once you get it in. That won't affect the taste. I like to put pats of butter on top before putting it in the oven at 375 for 20 minutes and then turn it down to 350 and cover with foil for another 30-45 minutes checking it. Let it sit out covered for 20-30 minutes before serving.

My Husband and I have been working on this pie crust recipe for years now. We love it and I hope you will try it and love it too. I would enjoy hearing any feedback about it.