Time for the next Baking Partner’s
Challenge!! This month’s theme was pie, which is something I’ve been wanting to
bake for ages! I’m totally loving the Baking Partner’s group J.
We were given a choice of two sweet and
two savory pies, of which I selected the Apple Pie recipe from Taste.com as
suggested by Gayathri of Gayathri’s cookspot. Since this was a completely new
thing for me, I did some research on the web and made a few modifications
accordingly. The resultant recipe is what you see here J.
For the Pie Dough:
Ingredients:
- 335g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tbsp caster sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 185g unsalted butter, frozen for 1 hour (or at
least 30 minutes)
- Ice cold water, about a cup
Steps:
1.
Sift flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a
large mixing bowl. Whisk together.
2.
Take frozen butter and grate quickly on the big
holes of a grater. Toss into flour mix.
3.
Stir
together with a fork till well mixed and the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Use
your fingertips if you find it difficult using only the fork.
4.
Start to bring the dough together by cutting the
liquid into the dough with a blunt knife or spatula, then form into a smooth
ball with your hands, adding a few tbsps of ice water at a time.
5.
Divide dough into two pieces, one slightly larger
than the other. Wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for 30 minutes.
For the
Filling:
Ingredients:
- 1.25 kg apples, of mixed variety
- 45 g unsalted butter
- 100 g caster sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- Juice of 1 lemon
Steps:
1.
To make the filling, peel and core the apples, and
cut into chunks. Toss immediately with lemon juice in a large bowl, to prevent
apples from discoloring.
2.
Place the butter and sugar in a large frying pan
over medium-low heat. When butter has melted, add apples and stir to coat.
3.
Cook, stirring occasionally, for a few minutes, till
apples have softened.
4.
Scoop out the apple chunks with a slotted spoon and
mix with the spices. Set aside to cool.
For the
Pie Crust:
1.
Roll out the larger pastry ball on a floured
workbench to a 30cm circle (about 2mm thick). You may use some cling film over
the pastry to prevent it from sticking to the rolling pin.
2.
Roll pastry around rolling pin, then unroll over a
22 cm metal pie dish. Gently press into corners and allow excess to overhang.
Take care not to stretch the pastry.
3.
Cut out the overhang, leaving behind ¼”. Brush the
base with a beaten egg and place in the refrigerator to chill.
4.
Roll out the small pastry ball to a 25 cm circle. Using
a pizza cutter dipped in flour, cut out strips from the pastry.
Pie
Assembly:
1.
Take the pie base out of the refrigerator.
2.
Take the filling out of the bowl with a slotted
spoon and fill in the base.
3.
Take
the pastry strips and place them vertically next to each other on the pie dish,
spacing equally between the strips. Do the same horizontally, creating a
lattice pattern.
4.
Cut off any overhang with a sharp pair of scissors.
Crimp edges of pastry together with your fingers or a fork. Chill for 30
minutes.
5.
Preheat oven to 180°C, brush top of pie with remaining
beaten egg and bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown.
6.
Allow
pie to cool for about 40 minutes before cutting. Serve with vanilla ice cream.
Now, this pie turned out quite good. The apples had
a wonderful flavor, being rightly spiced and the top crust was beautifully
flaky and crisp.
However, in spite of my best efforts, the bottom crust turned
out to be a bit soggy. Since this is my first ever pie-baking experience, I can’t
pinpoint the reason, but my subsequent internet research brought up the
following suggestions for a crisp bottom crust:
1. Blind
bake bottom crust at 200-220°C for 5 – 10 minutes, with edges covered in aluminum
foil
2.
Sprinkle semolina/bread crumbs on base before filling
3. Mix
corn flour with apples
4. Brush
base with egg white
5. Don’t
use Fuji apples
You can try any or all of the above (as I will be doing next time). Anyway, this didn’t stop us from enjoying the pie. The best part is that just a little piece will suffice as it is really filling. Be sure to have it with vanilla ice cream; cold ice cream melting on warm pie – heaven!!
Check out other bloggers' pies here!! |