Post & Photo: Alexis

Disclaimer: Although I thoroughly enjoy cooking, baking, and trying new recipes, I am still a newlywed and very much an amateur chef. Like Erin says, "I'm not a great chef, but I am a great collector of recipes." As I've mentioned before, I'm a serial recipe tester and always want to run before I walk. There are times the outcome has been surprisingly awesome, but more often than not, it turns out that valuable lessons are learned. A prime example of this would be the gorgeous, Food and Wine-ready Maple Apple Pie recipe I found a few weeks ago. I must have spent a solid hour carving out the beautiful Nordic-style design on the crust! But sometimes looks can be deceiving. Here are a few lessons I learned from the beautiful, but not-so-delicious apple pie...

1. Do not overwork the dough. You'll end up with the chewiest, impossible-to-cut pie crust.
2. Follow your instincts when you read a recipe that calls for both a cup of maple syrup and a cup of sugar. You are probably correct in thinking that this is far too sweet a combination.
3. Bon Appétit gives great advice: even when it seems like too much, increase the amount of apples the recipe calls for and roast them separately before baking them in the pie. You'll avoid the shrinking pie problem and have a healthy, full-looking pie!
4. Try out the recipe before entering it into a pie baking contest...