so i procrastinate by baking. i’ve made peace with this personality flaw, and furthermore have decided to embrace it. it’s better than watching youtube instead of going to bed on time, right? usually i bring the baked goods into work and feed them to the carpenters on their morning break, which suits everyone: i don’t get stuck at home with two loaves of zucchini bread or 3 dozen cookies, and the carpenters, when plied with homemade bakedgoods, will eat out of my hand* and do anything i ask.

i feel like i’ve pretty much mastered the basic quick breads/muffins, and i’ve got a reasonable handle on cookies and scones. last summer was devoted to the fruit cobbler. so i’m now moving on to simple pastries (ie, pie crust). actual leaven bread is probably years and many procrastinated tasks away from me yet.

last week i went apple picking in wisconsin, and the apples were were pleasantly crisp for eating, but a little bit picked-too-early sour. i figured they’d make great baking apples, and so saturday i made an apple pie from scratch. i generally understand the science behind pastry crust, and have helped my father/brother (both of whom are expert pie-makers) make pies, but this was the first time i’d made one from scratch in my own kitchen.** behold the results below. not too bad. the crust came out a little over baked, thanks to my highly unpredictable oven, and a little tougher than i’d like it to be, but definitely still flaky. the apples, as i had expected, treated with cinnamon, sugar, lemon zest and allspice, were divine. the recipe i followed came from 101cookbooks, though i altered the crust recipe to go with an all-butter crust instead of using a combo of butter and crisco.*** i also used white whole wheat flour instead of pastry flour, just because that was what i had on hand, and that might have been a mistake. after all, i want my food to be made of simple, nourishing ingredients, but if we’re baking pie here, we’re not making health food.

*metaphor, people!

**i realized it must be the first time i’ve made my own pie at home when, filling mixture and dough all ready to go, i discovered that i didn’t actually OWN a pie dish. oops. emergency run to target.

**the whole point of cooking at home is that i like to eat food made of simple ingredients. why spend 5 hours making a pie crust just to load it up with trans-fat filled vegetable shortening? i am determined to learn how to bake without frankeningredients. Bisquick and Crisco, you are banned from my kitchen!