Josh’s Birthday Dutch Apple Pie

Every year I make one pie, just one, and it’s this one. Dutch apple pie is Josh’s all-time favorite dessert, so it’s become our little birthday tradition for him. I bake it once a year, usually with flour all over the counters and apples piled high across the kitchen. But this year felt different. It was the first time making it in our new kitchen and somehow the whole thing felt a little more fun and a lot more beautiful. I’m still very much on my cooking and baking journey, so a fully homemade pie is what I’d consider labor intensive, but this space made the process feel special.

It’s made with freshly picked local apples, Alison Roman’s buttery pie crust, and The Food Charlatan’s classic Dutch apple filling as my base, plus a few tweaks of my own. I always pre-cook the apples, blind-bake the crust, and add in a little extra sweetness.

Not to brag, but it’s the best apple pie either of us have ever had. If you’re ready to try it yourself, here’s exactly how I make it (floury counters and all).

Homemade Crust (Alison Roman’s Recipe, Halved for One Disc)

Ingredients
– 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
– 1 teaspoon sugar
– ½ teaspoon kosher salt
– 10 tablespoons (1 stick + 2 Tbsp) unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1-inch pieces
– 1½ teaspoons apple-cider vinegar (or distilled white vinegar)
– 2 tablespoons ice water + more as needed

Instructions
1️⃣ In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt.
2️⃣ Add cold butter pieces and use your hands or a pastry cutter to smash and rub the butter into the flour until you have a mix of pea-sized and flat flour-coated bits.
3️⃣ Drizzle in vinegar and ice water; toss with a fork until shaggy dough just holds when squeezed. Add more water a teaspoon at a time if too dry.
4️⃣ Gather into a ball, flatten into a disc about 1-inch thick, wrap tightly, and refrigerate at least 2 hours (or up to 3 days).

⸻

Apple Filling

Ingredients
– 8 medium-to-large apples (I like to use 2-3 varieties)
– Juice of ½ lemon (≈ 2 Tbsp)
– ½ cup packed light brown sugar
– ½ cup granulated sugar
– ¼ cup all-purpose flour
– ½ tsp kosher salt
– 1½ tsp ground cinnamon (not going to lie, I eyeball this)
– ¾ tsp ground nutmeg
– 2 tsp vanilla extract
– 2 Tbsp unsalted butter (for pre-cooking)

⸻

Streusel Topping

Ingredients
– 1 cup all-purpose flour
– ¼ cup granulated sugar
– ¼ cup packed light brown sugar
– ¼ cup packed dark brown sugar (for extra sweetness and caramel flavor)
– ½ tsp kosher salt (or slightly less if using table salt)
– ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

⸻

Assembly + Baking

Instructions
1️⃣ Roll & chill the crust
Roll the chilled dough into a 12-inch circle. Fit into a 9-inch pie plate, trim and crimp edges, then chill 30 minutes (or freeze 15).

2️⃣ Blind bake
Preheat oven to 400 °F.
Line crust with parchment or foil and fill with pie weights, dried beans, or rice. Bake 15–18 min until edges look set. Remove weights, prick bottom with a fork, and bake 5–7 min more until lightly golden. Cool 10 min.

3️⃣ Pre-cook the apples
Melt 2 Tbsp butter in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add apples, both sugars, flour, salt, spices, and lemon juice. Stir gently and cook 8–10 min until apples just begin to soften and release juice. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla, and cool 15 min.

4️⃣ Make the streusel
Whisk flour, both sugars, dark brown sugar, and salt; pour in melted butter and mix until clumpy crumbles form.

5️⃣ Assemble
Spoon cooled apple mixture into the blind-baked crust, mounding slightly. Sprinkle streusel evenly over top.

6️⃣ Bake
Bake 10 min at 425 °F, then reduce to 350 °F and bake 35–40 min more, until topping is golden and filling is bubbling.

7️⃣ Cool & serve
Cool on a rack at least 2 hours before slicing. Serve warm or at room temp with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Serving + Storing

Best served warm, ideally with a scoop of Bluebell vanilla ice cream if you can get it. You’ll thank me later for that one! Store covered at room temperature for 1–2 days or in the fridge for up to 5.

🍎 Recipe inspired by @thefoodcharlatan and @alisoneroman, with The Gratz Life twist.

The New Chapter…

In 2015, I started working at Warby Parker after Josh and I had just moved to San Francisco. I was just a twenty-something trying to find my footing, standing in a bright little store helping people pick out glasses. I had no idea that job would become nearly a decade-long chapter of my life, one that taught me so much about people, leadership, and myself.

My background has always revolved around connection. Retail, hospitality, even cosmetology, every role tied together by a love for people. But if I’m being completely honest, my favorite job of all time was being a barista at Starbucks back in high school. I loved seeing my regulars. I loved how excited they were to see me, and I them. It wasn’t just about the coffee. It was about community, familiarity, and the small joy of being recognized. There’s something so special about starting someone’s morning with a smile and a drink crafted just the way they like it. Even then, I think I was chasing that same feeling I still chase now: creating small moments of beauty that make people feel something.

Over the years, I’ve worn a lot of hats, but none of them ever felt like the one. I’ve always been searching for the thing that made me come alive, the thing that made sense of all the little passions I’ve carried along the way. Design, storytelling, people, and purpose. And somewhere in the middle of life and work and figuring it all out, I stumbled into the world of content creation and design.

It started small. Just sharing pieces of my home, my finds, the things I loved. But it started to grow. It started to connect. What once felt like a hobby began to feel like a calling, something that blended everything I’d always loved into one creative, chaotic, beautiful mix.

So here we are. After nearly ten years of balancing safety with possibility, I finally took the leap. I left my full-time job to pursue content creation and design full-time, and honestly, it still feels surreal to say that out loud.

Am I scared? Without question. There’s uncertainty in every corner, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have moments of doubt. But I also feel so much peace. God’s fingerprints are all over this story. Every twist. Every moment that didn’t make sense at the time. I can see now that He’s been guiding me right here all along.

This new chapter feels like freedom. It feels like standing in the middle of what I was made to do: creating, connecting, sharing beauty, and trusting that the best is still ahead. I’m nervous, I’m grateful, I’m hopeful, and more than anything, I’m ready.

And in every way that matters, I feel like we’re just getting started…