Happy First Day of Spring y ‘all! We brought in the season this past weekend with a trip to the Flower Fields in Carlsbad to view the ranunculus!
Not sure if you’ve checked out my Spring Bucket List , but visiting The Flowerfield’s was Number 1 on my list and it did not disappoint!
Today’s post is all about number 5: baking spring desserts. I’ve been so inspired by the Southern California Spring super-blooms and gorgeous flowers at the local botanical gardens that I thought baking a basket of spring flowers would be fitting!
Scroll to the end for the recipe- but for now let’s get into the technique. To make a similar pie- you’ll need a set of floral pie crust cutters. I got a good set from Williams Sonoma , but you can also find them with a search on Amazon! 
I also use food coloring mixed with a little water to paint the flowers and leaves. 
You certainly don’t have to paint the flowers and leaves the pie looks perfectly pretty without being colored. 
The final technique you’ll need is to know how to make a lattice design which makes the basket part of the pie. With careful observation you’ll notice my lattice work was not perfect here and I’m fine with that. I was rushing to finish the pie before I needed to pick the kids up from school and once I noticed my errors I had no time to go back and correct them. Which brings me to my next point- perfection is not required here if it looks like a basket- then it’s a basket LOL! For tips on how to make an easy lattice pie crust click here!
Now for the recipe!
INGREDIENTS:
- 6 large apples- peeled, cored and cubed.
- 1/4 cup of white sugar
- 1/4 cup of brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon of cornstarch
- 3 tablespoons of flour
- 3 tablespoons of cinnamon
- 1 tablespoons of nutmeg
- the juice of half a lemon
- 1/2 stick of melted butter
- Three 8-inch pie crusts (store-bought or homemade).
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees
- Stir all of the ingredients except the pie crust in a large bowl until the apples are well coated.
- Roll out one of the 8-inch pie crusts onto a pie dish and pour the filling into the pie dish pressing the apples down firmly so they are laying flat.
- Next use another 8-inch pie crust to make your lattice basket weave on the bottom 2/3 of the pie- leaving the top 1/3 of the pie for flowers. Leave 5-8 strips of pie crust as “flower stems”
- If you have any remaining pie crust from the lattice make your flowers with that. If not, roll out another pie crust to make flowers – you can roll any remaining pie crust into a ball and freeze if unused. Paint flowers and leaves if desired.
- Assemble the stems along with the flowers to make the flower design of your choice.
- Bake for 60-75 minutes or until the basket weave is golden brown and the pie juices are bubbling throughout the pie. I will check the pie half way through baking and cover with foil if the edges are browning too fast.
Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream! Be sure to tag me on Instagram or leave a comment here if you try out the recipe! Enjoy the spring season!
