Award-winning Apple Pie

When I say this apple pie is "award-winning," I mean it! This apple pie is one of the best recipes I've ever encountered in my life...IN MY LIFE! It's from All Recipes, has 5 stars, and with over 4,600 reviews. It's even better than most pie specialty restaurants (ehem...M.C. and P*lly's). It might even be better than McDonald's apple pie. Yup, you read that correctly. I think McDonald's apple pie is one of my favorite pies, although I don't know if you could officially call it a pie, but I would, and I think it's great.

Here are some pointers when making this recipe. I've had a couple issues when melting the butter and the flour to make the paste. If your burner is on too hot, the butter will burn and you won't be able to make the paste that is required before adding the sugars. So make sure you turn your burner to low, and whisk the flour in as soon as all the butter is melted. This will ensure that the butter and flour become the correct consistency. I've ruined this recipe twice already by burning my butter, and you don't know how sad it is when you have to throw away a precious stick of butter each time you overcook it, especially if the butter is high quality and EXPENSIVE! 

Also, when pouring the liquid onto the pie, pour SLOWLY. In fact, I just spoon the liquid into the holes and over the crust just to make sure every nook and cranny gets an even amount of sauce. 

Other than that, I followed everything exactly as written with the exception of sprinkling some cinnamon over the crust and a couple dashes in the sauce before pouring. I think cinnamon adds a warm touch to the pie. 

Here it is before going into the oven:

Right out of the oven. Notice the sauce is still bubbling up from the heat! Yum~ but don't eat it until it has cooled.

Apple Pie by Grandma Ople

Ingredients

• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.
2. Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.
3. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.

A Friend's Farewell

A good friend of mine left for the army yesterday. For the farewell party, I wanted to do something a little special. Originally, I wanted to make a cake, but after looking at ideas, I decided to do a thin mint cupcake. Being short on time, I did what most bakers would call "appalling". I used a box cake. guilty. Basically, I bought some box cakes and added peppermint extract to the batter. How much extract? Oh, I eyeballed maybe 2 teaspoons or so. Add about 2 teaspoons of extract to the frosting as well. If you like a strong flavor, feel free to add more extract.



I also made some red velvet cake pops with 2 different flavored "frostings". One was the normal green candy melt, the other was semi-sweet chocolate. I think I prefer the green candy melt. The recipe is the same as my previous post with cake pops.



Sometimes the cake pops crack on the outside. Remedy: Decorate with chocolate!


Lastly, my friend asked me to make him a pie, but instead of making 1 big pie, I decided to make apple pie empanadas so it's easier to serve and eat. I adapted Emeril's apple pie turnover recipe here. I bought some pie crusts from the market (can you tell how lazy I was today?) and made the filling. 400F for 19 minutes turned out to be a pretty good estimate for these guys.



All in all, it was a pretty successful baking day!

Last of the Apples

After this post, I refuse to do anything with apples for awhile. It's not that I hate apples, but I'm starting to get sick of trying to find different ways to use all the apples I bought. So here's the last of the bunch. I decided to make 3 mini-apple pies to commemorate Father's Day. Luckily, my whole family loves apple pie! The filling is a little sketchy in terms of the ingredient measurements, but I'll do my best to make it accurate.



Ingredients
1 refrigerated pie crust
1 gala apple cut into 1/4" cubes
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
4 dashes of ground cinnamon
2 dashes of ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon cold butter

Preheat the oven to 350F.
1. Peel and core the apple and cut up into 1/4" cubes.
2. In a separate bowl, combine cornstarch, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
3. Add apples to bowl and mix to combine.
4. Unroll the chilled pie crust and use a cupcake pan to measure out 3 round pie crusts. Make sure you make the pie crust a little bit bigger than the actually size of the cupcake hole.
5. Gently press the crust into pan so the the edges of the crust
6. Fill each individual pie crust with the apple mixture 'til about 1/4" above the surface. Dot the top of the pie with butter.
7. Use the rest of the leftover dough to create a lattice top. Brush egg white on top for a shiny surface.
8. Bake until the tops of the pies are golden brown and apples are tender, about 30 min.

Apples Galore #2

On to my second dessert using my MINI-Granny smith apples. When I first watched Julie & Julia, there were 3 things that caught my attention: the bruschetta, the boeuf bourguignon, and the apple tarte tatin.

I thought that the little mini apples would be the perfect size to decorate my apple tarte tatin, and they were! These apples seem like they were born to be part of this tart. I forget how many apples I used, but I guess you can count them in the picture.


I don't own an oven-proof skillet so I had to improvise this recipe. I first cooked the sugar, water, and butter in a skillet. Here's what they mean when the recipe calls for a "rich golden color":


Then I transferred the apples to a cake pan and drizzled the syrupy goodness all over...


Final product:


Apple Tarte Tatin adapted from this website:

Ingredients:

• 6 to 8 large firm, sweet apples (such as Northern Spy, Winesap, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious or Mutsu), peeled and halved
• 1 to 2 lemons, halved
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 pound homemade or store-bought puff pastry (I used a pie crust)
  
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Core apples using a melon baller to retain the rounded shape of the apples. Rub the cut surfaces of the apples with the juice from the lemons to prevent browning. Set aside.
2. In a 10-inch cast-iron or heavy metal skillet over medium heat, heat the sugar and water. Cook the mixture until it turns a rich golden color, swirling the pan occasionally, about 6 to 7 minutes.
3. On a lightly floured surface, roll the puff pastry in one direction into a circle that measures about 14 inches in diameter and 1/8-inch thick. Brush off any excess flour with a pastry brush.
4. Add the butter to the skillet. Once the butter is melted, add as many apple slices as possible to the skillet, positioning them so that the rounded sides face down. Remove the skillet from the heat and top the apple slices with the puff pastry. Fold the edges of the pastry under and crimp them slightly. Make two to three small cuts in the puff pastry to allow the steam to escape. Place the tart in the oven to bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375 degrees F and bake until the pastry turns golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes.
5. Remove the tart from the oven and let cool for 2 minutes. Gently loosen the edges with a knife. Carefully place a plate over the skillet and flip, inverting the Tarte Tartin. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Apples Galore #1

I'm such a sucker for anything in miniature. I went to the market yesterday to buy some chicken and veggies, what I came out with were 12 MINI-Granny smith apples. What?? There is such a thing?! You betcha. They were honestly THE CUTEST THINGS EVER! Take a look...



Here's a normal Gala and my little granny side by side:


Can it be any cuter?? Alright, enough gushing. On to my dessert! Since I unnecessarily bought so many apples, I decided to make 2 desserts. One was inspired by the apple tarte tatin I saw on Julie & Julia, and the other was something I have always wanted to try, apple crisp.

For the apple crisp, I adapted it to make it as healthy as possible. I substituted the all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour and the white sugar for splenda with a tablespoon of brown sugar. The apple crisp came out OK, although it definitely tasted better the second day. Hm. In addition, this apple crisp should only be eaten hot. I don't know how anyone could ever want it or like it cold.

Here are the little apples cut up.


The crumble on top...


The final product before going into the oven.


Apple crisp recipe found on Gourmet Gal:

FILLING
6 cups sliced, peeled apples
1 tsp. cinnamon (I used a LOT more, like 2 tablespoons)
1 tbsp. water
1 tsp. lemon juice

TOPPING
1 cup rolled oats (I used Quaker 1 Minute Instant)
3/4 cup All Purpose flour (I used whole wheat flour)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar (I used Splenda)
1/2 cup butter (you could use margarine to cut down on fat)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place cut apples in an ungreased dish (you can use round, oblong or square). Sprinkle with cinnamon, water and lemon juice. Toss to evenly coat apples. In a separate bowl, combine all topping ingredients until crumbly and then spoon evenly over apples. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes until golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream!