Yesterday I got my frontier girl on and made an apple pie from scratch. Recipe?
I started by not following the first instructions in the recipe, which involve making everything you're using cold, like chilling the bowl and the flour and all. I didn't do that. I made a double recipe of "everyday family paste" which means I put a bunch of flour (2 1/2 cups) in a bowl and rubbed butter (siz tablespoons( through it with my fingers. Then, once it was pretty much uniformly coarse I added tablespoons on iced water until it made a dough. Then I realised it was meant to have salt in it, and I added that too.
The dough wasn't smooth. I want it to be smoother next time. I cut it into two equal lots and put them in the fridge to be more cold.
After that I got Lee to peel apples so that I could then core, quarter and slice them. This took a while. I think I used something like ten apples. I sliced them and put them into a bowl in which I had zested a lime (I forgot to buy a lemon) and then squeezed the juice in.) The lime juice covered the apple pieces and it was all nice.
Once that was all done, I took one lot of pastry and rolled it out a lot. I put it into my new pie dish (pyrex-type, not ceramic) which I had buttered earlier. The dough was a bit fally-aparty, and I had to patch some holes with bits that had fallen off the edges. Then it was a matter of layering apple slices with a lot of brown sugar.
You're meant to go apples, 1/3 cup of brown sugar, teaspoon of flour, apples, 1/3 cup brown sugar, teaspoon of flour, apples, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of flour. Then on top you put a pinch each of nutmeg, cinnamon and ground cloves and sprinkle on whatever's left of the lime zest and juice. I was worried about the amount of sugar I was putting in, so I didn't use the full 1/3 on the top layer. We didn't miss it.
Finally you roll out the last bit of pastry and make a pie lid. I was getting excited by the turkey at this point, because it was ready, so I didn't roll it out as much as I should of and had to stretch the pastry to the edge of the pie, but that's alright. Cut some vents in the pie top and bake for about 40 minutes.
The pie was delicious. The pastry came out bland but surprisingly crisp and good. The blandness was good because the pie filling was incredibly sweet and juicy so it was a good counterpoint. Lee wanted icecream with it, but it didn't really need it. Too much sweet!
We have leftover pie. Enough for me to have a piece at lunchtime and for Lee and I to share after dinner tonight. Mmmm. Pie.
Next time I make it I'll put in a little less sugar but add raisins.
PoF: stars
CO: baking