Baked Apple Pie with Leaf Crust Cutouts

I received an abundance of my favorite apples, Macintosh, from my sister. They are so small, yet so sweet. When you have that many apples you either can eat one each day (and keep the doctor away), make apple sauce, maybe some apple juice, or you make apple pie. The decision was easy. I had some vanilla ice cream in the freezer and got to work on an apple pie.

All you need is:

• About 6 cups of peeled and chopped apples (or more depending on the size of apples or what you prefer)
• 1/2 a cup of sugar
• 1 tablespoon of cinnamon (don't be shy)
• 1 teaspoon of nutmeg or allspice
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• Oven at 425 degrees
• Pie crust (You can make your own or a store bought crust)
• Pie dish

Peel and cut about 8 apples (6 cups) and add to a large bowl. Next, add the 1/2 cup of sugar. Add 1 tablespoon of cinnamon, 1/8 of teaspoon of nutmeg, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons of flour. Mix all the ingredients together.

Put the apple mixture in the pie dish (which should have the rolled out pie dough at the bottom).

Roll out the pie dough and place it on some parchment paper, next use a cookie cutter to cut out the shapes and place them on top of the pie. 

I overlapped the leaf cutouts and make sure you leave some openings to let the pie vent while baking.

Next put the pie in oven for 45 minutes at 425 degrees. One thing I forgot to do was wrapped the edges with foil so they don't burn. Mine got crispy, but I like a crispy crust.

Wait for the pie to cool down a little bit before serving (25 minutes). If you cut it too soon, it will be one soupy apple mess, but if you wait to cut each slice will hold much better together. 

Once you serve a slice, scoop a ball of vanilla ice cream on top and enjoy!