Apple Strawberry Pie

I've been making pies since I was about 14 years old, and developed some favorites along the way.  My family likes those tried and true pies and I could have kept my pie-eating family happy by continuing to make the same pies over and over.  But a couple of years ago I challenged myself to try new things more often, and that has led to the discovery of some fabulous new pies.  This pie is one that I never would have thought to try in the past, and it was a delicious revelation.  This is why trying new things is worth it!  It was National Pi Day (3.14) and I thought that was a fun excuse to make a pie, but I didn't have time or money to go shopping.  So I had to come up with a pie using what I had on hand.  Who knew apples and strawberries could play so deliciously together?  Give this one a try!  We ate it slightly warm with sweetened whipped cream, it would be great with ice cream as well.

APPLE STRAWBERRY PIE

Prepared pastry for a deep dish double crust pie

4-5 apples (I used Braeburn because that's what I had in the house.  Any kind of apple could work)

1/2 cup sugar

1 lemon, juiced and zested

1 quart strawberries, hulled and sliced

1/4 cup flour

• Roll out half of pastry and put in bottom of deep dish pie pan.
• Combine the apples, sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest and mix together well.  
• Mix in the strawberries, then carefully stir in the flour.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Spoon the filling into the pie shell.
• Roll out remaining pastry and place on top of pie and flute edges.  The strawberries make this a pretty pie for a lattice top.
• Bake pie for 30 minutes.
• Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees then bake pie 30 minutes more, or until apples are tender and juices are bubbling.