Monday, April 20, 2020

Star-Studded Apple Pie: Another Leftover Special that Turned out Great

We had a whole bowl of apples that were getting wrinkly. I told the teenagers they were perfectly fine, especially for cooking, but they didn't believe me until I made this: (the before picture)
Now here's the after--and it made a great breakfast:
The recipe's pretty close to the one in the Fanny Farmer cookbook, but I did tweak it a bit. Madame Farmer advises the cook not to mix the crust too much--if you do, you won't get all the little flubs of flour and grease that give the pie character. Or so she thinks. When the teenagers are hungry, here's what you do: Pre-heat the oven to 220º Celsius (about 425ºF). Get out the food processor and dump in the following:
Two cups of all-purpose flour plus a half teaspoon of salt. Mix with fork before you add the other ingredients which are: 2/3 (or even 3/4) cup of RAMA margarine or butter. We have vegans in my family, so I used the RAMA. Then add two or three tablespoons of chilled water--I put a half cup of cold water with ice cubes in the fridge before I started assembling the ingredients. And a bit of ice fell into the mix as I was measuring out the water. 
Process the flour mixture until it's a big doughball. Divide in two; roll out one on a floured board and put in a lightly greased pie plate. 
The apples: first, put a cup of sugar, a teaspoon of cinnamon, a half teaspoon of salt, two tablespoons of flour, and a dash of nutmeg into a bowl. Mix well. 
Peel, core and slice into the mix about six apples. You're okay with five. You can add raisins if you like. Mix well. Dump into the pie plate that's already got the crust in it. Put a few more dabs of RAMA or butter on top. Set aside. Roll out the other half of the dough, cover the apples, press down. Punch a few holes with a fork. Use any leftover bits of dough for decoration; I got out the Christmas cookie cutters and made starts. Put pie in oven. After ten minutes, turn down to 180º C. Bake for at least another thirty minutes--I usually leave in for about fifty. 
Yum!

2 comments:

  1. Thanks, but way too complicated for this average NYC cook. Baking pies is something bakeries do.

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  2. Yeah . . .I find baking soothing, though. Several friends hate to cook, so I understand.

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