Thanksgiving Pie

A must have on the Thanksgiving desert table is pie. In my family, we always make apple pie, so this year I decided to twist the flavor up. I made a practice pie using a basic apple pie recipe, but added some of my own ingredients to produce a much more mouthwatering dessert.

Ingredients

• 1 package pre-made pie shells
• 5 McIntosh apples peeled, cut into 1/4" thick slices
• 1 cup fresh strawberries
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into small pieces to be placed on top of the pie
  

Making a pie is not rocket science. I combined all the ingredients into one big bowl, mixed them all together, and set the filling into the bottom pie shell. Making the lattice with the top pie shell, was a bit of a challenge though. I used Kaloustain's tip on handling pastry lattice, and cut and weaved the pastry lattice on wax paper (207). 

Once the dough was weaved, I placed the wax paper into the fridge for 45 minutes to harden a little. After the lattice hardened, it was very easy to lift off the wax paper and place on top of the pie. Using this method was by far much easier way of handling lattice then any other methods I tried. Using this method, my lattice did not turn out perfect, but it certainly turned out the best it ever had. The recipe then simply stated to place the pie into the oven, but I took Walters advice in order to keep my pie as best looking as I possibly could. Walter advises, "Chill your pie before baking. All pie crusts hold their shape best in the oven if they're chilled for half and hour before baking" (208).This suggestion really did help keep my pie in shape. They pie did not collapse but stayed puffed up, even making my lattice look a little better than it really was.

The pie turned out tasting very delicious, and it even looked better than any pie I've made thanks to Kaloustain's and Walter's tips. The filling however turned out very watery which caused a few complications. It made the pie extremely difficult to eat, and created an enormous challenge in attempting to take a good looking picture of a pie slice. But don't let the looks deceive you; this pie, was one tasty, delectable pie!

Do you have any advice on what ingredients I could add to create a thicker pie filling?

"Kitchen Tips, Food Fixes and Handy Techniques." Fine Cooking: n. pag. Rpt. in
     How to Break and Egg. Ed. Pam Hoenig. Newtown: The Taunton Press, 2005.
     N. pag. Print.