Mickey Apple Pie

This weekend was my dad's birthday and we enjoyed celebrating with him. My mom, dad, sister, and I all have birthdays April-July. Add in Mother's Day, Father's Day, and all three of our anniversaries - and you've got a ton of mid-year celebrating! I've been making custom cakes for these celebrations, but I thought outside the cake this time. Somehow, my dad is not a cake fan. But, he LOVES pie - particularly apple pie.

Last time I tried to bake an apple pie for my dad it...well, it didn't go very well. It was Father's Day 2012 and just a couple weeks before my wedding. I had just moved into our house, it was an extremely stressful time and the evening was filled with disasters. I forgot to peel the apples, the slices were too thick, and I didn't fill the pie with enough apples. I didn't pay close enough attention to what type of apple I was using, I don't think they were the best for baking. The pie wasn't filled enough and the apples were slightly crunchy. Overall, the pie was just a bit dry.

But, this time went much better! I decided to do a little more research, I wanted this to be a mouth-watering pie. I read up on apple uses for baking/cooking and went with Mr. Alton Brown's advice of Golden Delicious apples. Between the more baking-friendly apple, and cutting the pieces thinner, the apple pie filling was tender and delicious!

As you've seen on my site, I try to make custom cakes in decoration, as well as flavor. I really wanted to add a personal touch to this pie. My dad loves Disney, even his office is filled with our old Disney themed figurines and toys. I had the idea to add a nod to Mickey by cutting some Mickey ears out of the tasty crust.

Here's how I made this pie, including the Mickey touch. I used the Pillsbury recipe, you can find the original one here.

Apple Pie ingredients:

• 1 box Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts (2 crusts in the box)
• 6 medium apples, peeled and thinly sliced (~6 cups)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbs all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tbs lemon juice

Apple Pie directions:

• Preheat oven to 425F
• Wash, peel, and thinly slice the apples

• Mix together the dry ingredients (sugar, flour, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon)

• Toss the apples in lemon juice and then the dry ingredient mixture

• Place one crust in a pie pan

• Fill with apples
• Roll out crust and cut out Mickey ears using cookie cutter (if you don't have a Mickey cookie cutter use one medium sized round cutter, and a small one)
• Place crust on top of pie

• Fold top crust in behind bottom crust
• Pinch the crust together to seal

• Cut a few slits around the edge of the pie
• Dot the top of the crust with butter and add a sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg

• Bake for 45-50 mins
• Cool and then enjoy!

Hope you enjoy this "magical" pie! It was a big hit and the whole pie was gone within 24 hours. I may not be giving "The Pie Man" competition any time soon (Food Network star anyone?). But, I will definitely be making this pie again!