Monday, October 15, 2012

best laid plans (and apple pies!)

This weekend did not go as planned at all! I was supposed to start the museum-challenge on Saturday, for which I want to visit one museum each week to see what's all out there, art, history, what else?
I felt really bad though (my boy calls it sick, but I don't like to label those things), so I stayed in bed almost a whole day, made union soup (I love making and eating soup when I feel bad), burned some other food, watched Peter Pan II; Return to Neverland (nowhere near as nice as the original one... why is that so hard?) missed a nice party and watch stupid (and less stupid) tv-programs. I guess those days are also important.

Sunday we had some visitors for an early diner, so I wanted to make some bread to go with the union soup and bake little apple pies. During the morning I decided to not make the bread, because a real baguette, with some cheese melted on it, fits better with union soup. Of course, I could have tried to make it myself, but that is something for the future. I just bought one.

However, I did make the apple pies! They were lovely.
I got inspired by the lovely pies the people from Public Pie make, because at a festival all I wanted to buy was one of their jummy smelling apple pies, but every time I went there, I was too late!! Noo, what a shame! So I just made them myself. Ha.

Here is the recipe, I got it from Anne Bakt and adapted it a bit. I guess most people know how to make apple pie, or know how to find one of the million recipes online, but since this is my first recipe, I don't really care! Hope you enjoy it!



Ingredients

Pastry
300 gr white flour
190 gr butter
150 gr sugar

Filling
600 gr apples - I used more, my apples where too big! So I ate what was left over. I used Gourdreinetten, but you can choose any sort you like.
2.5 tbsp sugar - I used brown sugar for the filling, just because I like it!
.5 tbsp cinnamon - or probably more, I don't really measure spices and always add more cinnamon, I love it!
80 gr of whatever - In this case I added raisins, probably a bit less than 80 gr. Do whatever you like. Go crazy on nuts, raisins and the like
some lemon juice

You also need
Muffin pan for 12 muffins (or 2 for 6, like in my case!)
A bowl (duh)
Dough roller
An oven (duh again!)
and other things I'm not going to mention here.

What to do?!

First of all you want your muffin pan to be very well buttered, because else it is hell to get your lovely little pies out! So butter it up!






Next you make your dough. Throw everything in the bowl and kneed! If it is hard to get it consistent and you have little patience (or your butter is too cold....) you can add a little water in the mixture. I actually always do this. Not too much though, that's no good. In most recipes it says you have to let the dough rest for a while. I never really understood why and never did it, but now I am curious to see the benefit of this. So I wanted to let my dough rest in the fridge, but it wasn't really much colder when I got it out again, so I'll try again next time!



Okay, the filling! I like my apples really fine. No big lumps of apple, but soft smooth pieces of heaven. So I use a grater. (Be careful though, my boy lost a (little tiny) bit of his finger once with this thing). So peel the apples, remove the cores and grate them. You can also just chop them, if that's how your boat rocks. Add lemon juice to keep them from going brown (and add some nice flavors). Add the sugar and cinnamon and mix it very very good.

Next you get your dough out (which has not cool down a bit, maybe I need a better fridge!). Roll part of it out and punch out your pie bottoms. If you don't have a great handy tool like I found in my cupboard, you can use a knife or something else (use your imagination!). As you can see I choose to first punch the bottom and after that add the sides of the pie with a stroke of dough. You can also do it all at once, using a bigger round, but I choose not to. Make sure you press the corners well with the method, else there will be holes between the two pieces. Also make sure you keep some dough left over for the top of your pies, but that wasn't really a problem for me. I had plenty left.



Next stuff it with your delicious filling! I made too much, since I had such hugh apples, so I really tried to stuff it. And build a nice tower of apple filling on top. 
Now comes the hardest decision in the pie making process. What will you put on top?! This time I choose to crumble my dough and sprinkle it on top. Just because I love crumbled dough. But you go also go more traditional and add strokes, or even close the whole pie. There is probably enough dough left for that. Make some nice garment on it. Great. However, I made crumbles which resulted in lots of left over dough, which I ate (well part of it, the rest is still in the fridge). - When I was little I always thought the best part of making pies/cookies/whatever was eating the left over stuff. So being a grown up and all, I always make sure the are left overs! - You can also add a little bit of egg on top to make your pies nice and shiny. I didn't, I like them dull.

Bake your little pies at 180° (preheat your oven) for about 45-50 minutes depending on how brown you like them. Just check it.



Let them cool down a bit before taking them out of the pan and then place them on a rack to cool down entirely. Or enjoy them warm. Hmmmm!

And it is autumn! Time to listen to Fleet Foxes again! 

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