In our home, McIntosh apples are a favorite for desserts. Part of that may be because I grew up in an area where McIntosh apples were prevalent. I’ve read that they’re not generally considered a popular choice for cooking or baking because they break down easily. We actually prefer that softness.
Now, we live in an area where McIntosh apples aren’t as readily available. We can find them, but they’re not at every store and they’re only in stock for a brief period of time. Last week, I found them for the first time this season.
One of the biggest lessons that I remember from seventh grade home economics class is this: If you’re going to go through the effort to make one pie, you might as well make two.
I didn’t set out to buy all of the Macs, I simply picked out enough apples for two pies. We like really full pies, which means I always aim for nine apples per pie. After I picked out 18 apples, there were only four left. I thought most people would look at those four lonely apples and assume there was a reason they were left behind. I couldn’t leave them to languish like that.
I had visions of creating masterpieces with beautifully decorated crusts to put up on this blog. Instead, I had a houseful of helpers to keep me company, and part of creating is learning what works and what doesn’t work. They struggled to get the crust moist enough to stay together well, and that made decoration less of a priority.
We ended up with one tart made from three apples, and two pies made from nine-and-a-half apples each. We used fall-themed cookie cutters on the tart and one pie, and playfully inserted a pie bird into the other pie.
We enjoyed eating them together as much as we enjoyed making them together, and that makes them masterpieces in my book.
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