homemade apple pies

With the bounty of apples from our picking adventure, we made 4 apple pies. I'd never made an apple pie before. Crisps? Plenty. But we winged it on the apple pie front and they came out fabulous. Here is our recipe:

Homemade Apple Pies
(makes four 8" pies)

store bought pie crusts (yes, you read that right)
1 dozen large apples (or more if your apples are smaller), cut into chunks
apple cider
raw honey
agave
maple syrup
cinnamon
nutmeg
allspice

This was not a perfect science, so I've listed the ingredients that went into our pies, but you should tinker with the amounts to get to a taste you like...

Preheat the oven to 425. In a large pot, combine the apples and cider. You want enough liquid so that the apples are simmering in it...but not so much that the filling will be soupy. For a dozen large apples, I eventually added about 2 cups of fresh cider. Start with 1 cup and add more as the liquid boils off. You want to start the apples and cider at a boil, then lower heat so it is at a fast simmer. Add your favorite sweetener (we added a combination of raw honey, agave and maple syrup) and a few hearty shakes of each spice, to get to the taste of your ideal apple pie filling. Stir the apples a few time, just to combine everything and make sure they are cooking evenly, during the 10-12 minutes it takes for the apples to soften some. Ideally, you'll end up with about 1/2 cup of liquid remaining in the filling.

Line pie plates with crust. Fill with warm pie filling. Top with crust (lattice or a full top crust with a small hole cut in the center to let steam escape). Bake for about 30 minutes, or until crust is golden.