Apple pie filling questions

[giggler]

Dear Illustrious Group,

I have been working on Apple Pie for a couple of years now, and feel I'm getting pretty good, but...hope Y'all can help..

1. Is there any way to tell how much sugar to add to the filling before cooking?

I'm using a mix of green and red apples, my Joy of Cooking recipe gives a range for the sugar amount..

Do you taste the apples when raw and then decide?

2. How small do you cut up the apple pieces? I'm going for a sort of "chunky" filling so I make mine fairly large, but then a huge "heaping" pie goes into the oven, but then cooks down quite a lot...

it's good, but the top crust looks like a mine field..

The elderly Lady next door said I should cook the chunky filling a bit in a pan on the stove first and taste for sugar and also keep the pie from "falling" so much...

Do Y'all do that?

Thanks, Eric Austin Tx.

 

[PieSusan]

Exactly, I taste a little as I peel and I know what kind of apples I am buying and if they will hold their shape, turn to mush, and be sweet or tart.

 

[FincaPerlitas]

I also taste mine before baking. Usually, the lowest range of sugar called for in the recipe is enough but sometimes I need to add a little more. I don't like to precook my apple filling. The texture is too soft and mushy. Of the commonly available supermarket apples, yellow and red delicious and gala are my favorites for pies. Granny Smith apples are sometimes too mushy when cooked.

 

[Constance]

I like Jonathon for pies...they are slightly tart and nice and firm. I always use the high end of the sugar called for, because I like a pie to be sweet. I slice the apples thinly, because I want them to be nice and done...don't like crunchy apples in my pies.
By the way, add a pinch of nutmeg along with the cinnamon, a squeeze of lemon juice over the apple, and about 3 pats of butter on top of the apples before you put the top crust on.

If you are a little artistic, cut an apple and leaf out of leftover pie crust, brush with a little beaten egg and put on top of pie for decoration.

 

[Wart]

Isn't that a question. How much sugar.

Last tie I made an apple pie I used 2 oz white cane for cutting and used 4 oz light brown for the flavorings, 30 ounces of 4 types of apples (sliced), it was darn good. Wife loved it.

Last night I 'prototyped' a pie for tomorrow, I'm switching from "pearl" tapioca to tapioca flour and needed to see how well the flour worked. Same sugar, 32 ounces of 5 types of apples, this time I threw in a sour apple.

Wife thinks I put lemon in it (nope) and doesn't like it as well, but I think it's far more interesting.

My point ... Wish I had one, just wanted to post a picture of my pie ..