Pie Crust... Failed.

Nobody's perfect, ok?!?  In the spirit of humbleness, I'm going to write about my first real Bake or Buy failure.  It was time for the pie test, which I was very excited for.  I was attempting apple pies with a refrigerated crust and a crust from scratch, made with oil (I don't keep shortening on hand, which is how a typical crust is made... I don't know why I didn't do butter).

The store brand: Harris Teeter Refrigerated Pie Dough (store brand)

My Recipe (from http://whatscookingamerica.net/piecrst.htm):
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil

- Mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl.
- Measure the vegetable oil and the milk into the same liquid measuring cup but do not stir.
- Add to the flour/salt mixture; mix briskly to combine until the dough comes together into a ball.

I could already tell there is an issue going on here...

- Divide the dough in half. Roll out each half to 1/8 inch thick between 2 sheets of wax paper.

So, how did it go?  It was laughable.  The dough was so crumbly that it would never make a pie shell.  So instead, I did some little tarts with half the dough:

But the dough burnt and was really hard when they were done.

The other half I added some water to and did a bottom pie crust (the bottom pie - I just made a crumb topping):

The top crust is the store brand.  It was SO easy.  And tasted so much better - the oil crust was just hard and awful.

It was so bad/sad that I didn't even photograph the final product!  UGH.  The pie crust will be revisited, but for now...

Bake or Buy?  BUY!

Do you have a great pie crust recipe? Do you just want to poke fun at my failure?  Share in below in the comments section!

Applesauce

I have fall fever and a drawer full of apples.  Applesauce is one of those things I make when I need to get rid of apples, so it's not something I usually purchase, but let's give it a test run, just to make sure.

The store brand: Harris Teeter original applesauce (store brand)

My recipe (straight from my head):
5 medium apples (I'll use any variety)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup water
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp cinnamon
tiny pinch of salt

- Peel and dice up all the apples - I usually leave mine in about 1 inch pieces.
- Combine everything in a saucepan and cook on medium heat for 15 minutes.

- Use a potato masher to mash down into your favorite consistency (you can use a hand blender if you like it really smooth, but I like the CHUNKS!).
- Taste and add more sugar/cinnamon to taste.

So, how does it taste?  Amazing.  It's so easy to make and it's not even fair that I ate it warm next to the jar of baby food store bought applesauce.  It tastes SO much better.  Nutrition-wise mine does have sugar added, but the store brand is high fructose corn syrup, so whatevs.

And the cost?

	Size	Cost	Cost/Oz
Harris Teeter Original	24 oz	$      1.69	$            0.07
Homemade	28 oz	$      2.83	$            0.10

So the homemade does cost more to make.  Just as a note - I did buy the store brand, and it was mostly because Mott's was much more expensive.  In comparison to Mott's brand, the homemade is just about the same price.  But aside from the cost war, taste just wins here - it's just so much better.

Bake or Buy? BAKE!

What about you?  Leave a comment and let me know if you buy applesauce or make your own!