TONTOGANY – Change is good. Especially when it involves cinnamon and butter.
Kylee Euler, whose baked goods recently ruled at the Tontogany Festival, is sharing one of her pie
recipes, which she tweaked a bit after finding it on the Internet.
"The original recipe came off of a website that I found five or six years ago. I kind of adapted it
to where everyone in my family likes it."
Euler changed it for health – and sweet-tooth – reasons.
Many of her relatives have food allergies, so she dumped the nuts.
Then she added cinnamon to the filling and a butter topping to the crust.
"Cinnamon is one of my favorite flavors."
The butter topping makes it even better.
"When you bake it, when you have the buttery topping on it, it gets it nice and crunchy and
sugary."
The key to her award-winning apple pie isn’t in the spice, Euler said.
"The original called for Granny Smith apples. I like to use a variety of apples," she said.
Jonathon, McIntosh and Braeburn can all be peeled, cored and sliced and put into the bowl.
"The mixture makes it different. It gives the pie a different texture. Not all apples bake the
same."
While Euler’s mixing up a batch of filling for the pie, she’ll inevitably find a little one perched next
to her in the kitchen. She has four children, Bailey, 17; Trenton, 8; Kaylynn, 6, and Colton (C.J.), 8
months.
"The kids eat the apples right out of the bowl, so I have to make extra."
At the Tontogany Festival earlier this month, Euler won first place for her apple and cherry pies. She
got second for a peach and third for blueberry in the miscellaneous category. The apple pie also won
best of show.
Euler said she and her husband, Abel, are "really involved" with the annual summer festival.
But she said she doesn’t have a conflict of interest when entering pies because the contest is sponsored
by Laureate Gamma Sigma Chapter of Beta Sigma Phi.
"This was one my best years for pies."
She and her mom, Karen Joseph, are "big canners" and they get many of their fruits from
relatives, including her husband’s grandfather, who had a bounty from his peach trees.
She grew up in the kitchen of her parents’ Grand Rapids home, and vividly recalls sitting at the counter,
stirring, mixing, pouring and chopping.
"I cooked from the time I can remember with my grandmother. My mom was also a stay-at-home
mom," Euler said. "My kids are the same way. They like to sit at the counter and help
me."
She continually experiments with recipes.
"I just play with recipes out of cookbooks or what I find online, add, subtract ingredients."

There are rarely any complaints from the dinner table.
"My husband eats all of my creations. He tells me if they’re good or not worth making again,"
Euler said. "My kids are pretty adventurous, too. They’ll try anything at least once."
Last week she made zucchini boats, which got a thumbs-up.
"My kids got to eat their vegetables and they didn’t complain about it," Euler said.
"You never know what you’re going to get out of my kitchen."
Apple Pie
Ingredients:
Pastry for double crust pie
8 medium apples – peeled, cored and sliced
½ cup white sugar
½ tsp. cinnamon
Topping:
½ cup butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ cup white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup water
Directions:
Preheat oven to 425°F. Combine apples, sugar and cinnamon.
Place bottom crust in pan and fill with apple mixture. Cover apples with a lattice top of crust.
Melt the butter and stir in flour to make a paste. Add the sugars and water, bring to a boil. Remove from
heat.
Pour butter mixture over the lattice crust. Pour slowly to avoid mixture running off edge of pie.
Place on baking sheet and bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F and continue baking
35-45 minutes or until apples are tender.