neiman marcus apple pie

let me ruin it for you - it was a bust. *gulps wine*

so, this is the recipe from my mother's neiman marcus cookbook. it seemed really easy and the pie looked beautiful in the photo (which im sure was fake.)


here is the apple pie from the book:

and here is mine:







yeah. soup in crust. wtf. anyway - here is the recipe.











INGREDIENTS:

5 granny smith apples, peeled, cored, cut into thin half inch slices
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, beaten
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup light brown sugar
2 tblsp unsalted butter, softened
pie crust (it tells you how to make you own, but i just got the store bought kind)
crumb topping (they have their own special recipe, but i found a box of it in the produce section that had the same stuff! totally put everything back and got the box. one less thing for me to screw up) well, so i thought.

preheat oven to 400 degrees.
to to make the filling, combine the apples, granulated sugar, egg, cinnamon, lemon zest, salt, vanilla, brown sugar, and butter in a bowl.

add 1/2 cup of the crumb topping and fold together to thoroughly incorporate. how freakin' good does that look?

spoon the filling into the pie shell and cover evenly with the remaining crumb topping. transfer to oven and bake for about 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown. which sounds easy enough?

so whitney sits with a glass of wine next to her incredibly handsome husband and waits for the pie to be finished. thinking shit like, "man, if only i had a windowsill to cool my pie on for the neighbors to see".



pie is done! i race over and pull it out of the oven. its bubbling all over like the book said it would. a little residual powdered sugar has yet to melt - but thats okay, extra goodness on top. pop that baby on the kitchen island and finish my wine while it cools.

and after an episode of american pickers the pie is cool enough to eat. and that is when i try to slice nick and i a piece and it crumbles to utter failure. what did i do wrong? my friend jenna (betty crocker with an attitude) can whip up something fierce in the baking department. she assured me that any pie is good pie and to blame it on neiman marcus and eat it with a spoon. but still. ugh.