Food for Friends

Here's the recipe… make sure you read the whole thing first!

Apple Pie

June1

This recipe is highly customizable, it’s more a set of general guidelines than a recipe, so play with it until you find something you like.

Preheat oven to 400 F

Ingredients:

  • 1 batch of Perfect Pastry recipe
  • 4 Granny Smith apples
  • 4 Gala or Fuji apples
  • Brown sugar to taste (about 1/2 cup usually works)
  • Cinnamon to taste (about 1 tbsp. should be good)
  • Ground Allspice to taste (about 1/3 tbsp.)
  • 3 tbsp. of Corn Starch to thicken sauce
  • A little bit of Lemon Juice
  • 2 tbsp. of butter cut in small pieces

Process:

Peel the apples and slice them in thin wedges. Too thin will cook too fast, thick slices may not cook enough. Place apple slices in a medium bowl, squeeze the lemon juice on the apples to prevent them from turning brown and sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon, allspice and 2 tbsp. of the corn starch. Mix well. Set aside.

Roll half of the dough and line a 9-inch pie pan with it. Roll the top crust and have it ready to set in place when you fill the pan with the apples. If you are doing a lattice crust, follow the lattice directions and have the strips ready.

Fill the pie pan with the apples, including any juices that may have settled at the bottom of the bowl. Sprinkle with the remaining corn starch and dot the butter throughout the top. Place the top crust on, or the lattice, making sure you “glue” the edges well with egg wash, lightly varnish the top with more of the egg wash. Cut steam slits on top if it’s a solid crust, sprinkle with sugar if you want.

Place in the center rack of the oven and bake until the top is light gold and the apple juices are bubbling. Varies from oven to oven, but it should be about 30 minutes.

Notes:

-It’s important to learn to “read” the pie. Cooking times vary depending on the apples, the pie dish, the oven, and lots of other things. Usually apples are done after a few minutes of bubbling, which is obvious in the lattice version of it, but not so much with a solid crust. You can insert a toothpick through a little hole and see if the apples are soft.

-If the crust is browning too fast and the apples are not catching up, loosely place a piece of tinfoil on top of the pie and this will prevent it from drying up and burning.

Variations:

Add one of the following to the apple mix: chopped walnuts, chopped pecans, almond slivers, chopped crystallized ginger, raisins or dried cranberries.

You can also make this pie with firm pears with similar results.

Serve warm or cold… a scoop of vanilla ice cream makes it magnificent!

posted under Desserts

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Here are the recipes finally. This is something I have been wanting to do for a long time and never got around to it. Some of you know that I love cooking and experimenting in the kitchen. There is a certain alchemy that has to happen in order to have the ingredients turn into delicious creations. There is no real secret behind it, just lots of fresh ingredients, time and patience to try things out and some creativity.

Not everything I make turns out perfect on the first try. Most of the time, even when I follow recipes carefully, there are some adjustments that have to be made in order to make it exactly the way I like it. In some cases recipes have failed miserably and a last-minute plan B has been tackled, and in other cases I had to toss the first batch of something and repeat the steps until it works out.

I hope these recipes bring a lot of magic to your meals, just as they have brought magic to mine. They have all been thoroughly tested and I will never post something I have not made myself. Some adjustments may have to be made for dietary preferences or limitations. Feel free to email me or drop me a note if you have any questions.