the Best Apple Pie

My objective is to make the best, most delicious pies. I have to admit that i fall short of that goal. the best pies in the entire world are made by Barbara Filson. She's in her 80's, so i think she's got a bit more experience than me... so i don't feel too badly. (and i suspect she uses lard. i'm afraid to ask her)

what i need to do to bring my pies up to scratch:

• get that gorgeous tender yet crispy/flaky crust that Barbara gets
• not overcook the filling (so the apples are mushy) :(

Northern Spy apples are the best for apple pie. my mother is absolutely right on this. i made my first apple pie last week and it was amazing. these apples are not pretty to look at, and are terrible for eating. they are usually available in late october. i have to warn you, though, if you cook it too long the apples will turn to mush. 45 min seems to be the golden time...depending on the oven, right?

start with making your own crust as it is really worth it (recipes below). my crust isn't quite there yet, but the flavour beats store bought crusts hands down.

to fill the apple pie (in a larger deep pie plate):

• line the pie plate with pie dough (you will need a sheet of it for the top)
• 6 northern spy apples (7 if they are smaller)
• brown sugar: to taste
• butter: about 6 small cubes of it
• more brown sugar
• cinnamon (my mom hates it, so i lie to her and put a little in. she won't read this blog, so don't tell her)
  

1. sprinkle a few tablespoons of brown sugar in the bottom of the pie dough. you CAN sprinkle a bit of flour on the bottom of the pie dough before you add the sugar. i think this is to keep the bottom of the pie crust from getting mucky.
2. peel and core the apples and slice then into medium thick slices. don't worry too much, it doesn't seem to matter too much how thick/thin they are or how neat/messy. i cut the slices off the peeled un-cored apple right into the pie dish.
3. when you've got a big mound of apple slices in there, you're almost done. sprinkle a few more tablespoons of sugar on the top of the apples, and then dot the top of the pie with the butter cubes. too much sugar and butter will overwhelm your apples. Norther Spys are beautifully tart! -sprinkle cinnamon on top if you like cinnamon - i usually do.
   
4. cover the pie with the second sheet of pastry... firmly pinch around the edges to seal the pie, and vent the top with little cuts with a sharp knife.
5. cook the pie at 350° for about 45 min. the apples should be very tender when poked with a knife. mmmmm

Pie Crust:
basic pie crust - 3 options:

crisco box recipe:

• 2 cups (500 ml) all purpose flour (i used unbleached organic)
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup crisco shortening (you can use vegan organic, no difference in taste) - COLD
• 4 - 8 tbsp ice water (must have ice in it)

1. mix together dry ingredients.
2. cut in cubes of COLD shortening with 2 knives or a pastry cutter. i often use 1/2 cup of shortening and roughly 1/4 cup (or a bit more) of very cold butter. i mix the shortening in first so that it has a mealy texture, then i cut in the butter, leaving larger pea sized lumps of butter. the pea sized crumbs of shortening in there is what makes it flaky. if you mash it too much, it will be tough. too little will make it hard to work with as the mix will be dry.
3. sprinkle the water (i pretty much use 8 tbs or more) throughout the top of the dry dough coarse crumby looking stuff. do not stir, but gently mix it in with a fork (i use my hands, which are usually not very warm). stirring is supposed to be bad. i see if i can get it to form together into a ball after a minimum amount of kneading. work it as little as possible or it will get tough. if it won't stick together, sprinkle water on the dry crumbly parts.

once it forms into balls (round balls that you flatten a bit) you can wrap it in wax paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 min or the next day. you should let it return to room temperature before rolling out. i rarely do this unless i have a lot of time. at best, i refrigerate it for 30 min and then let it warm up for 15 min while i do something else. at worst, i just roll it out straight from the mixing bowl. bad cook.

rolling out tips: julia child et al suggest plopping the dough down on a flour-sprinkled surface and sprinkling more flour on the dough before rolling, and then turning it 1/4 turn after every 2 or 3 rolls.
bah! that is so hard! i wish i could do that but i am always in a hurry and too lazy. one day i may try to be so professional. however, not today. i put down a piece of waxed paper, sprinkle some flour on it, plop down the dough, sprinkle some flour on that, and then lay another piece of waxed paper on top. i squish the dough down a bit, and start rolling in long, easy rolls, to ensure that the dough is rolled out to an even thickness. this is important! if the dough starts to crack and get weird shaped, i just lift up the waxed paper and squish it into the right shape with my fingers.
if i think the waxed paper will stick to the top of the dough, i will add more flour. if you think it will stick on the bottom, then flip the entire thing over before you to try to transfer it to the pie plate, and pull hte sticky bottom waxed paper off first, then flip it over onto the pie plate, and pull the freshly floured waxed paper off of the more troublesome (to take off) top side.
once in the pie plate, do not squish the dough into the bottom of the plate. this will cause shrinking once it is cooked, and will make you very sad. do not strech the dough at all. just kind of manoever it into position. treat the dough gently, and it will reward you.
if you are going to cook the dough before you add the filling, you must prick it with a fork...all over! let no inch go unpricked. some people add pie weights or beans to prevent the dough from bubbling, but the pricks always worked for me. snicker snicker.

here are some variations:

basic pie dough:
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup chilled shortening
2 tbsp cold butter
4 tbsp ice water (i used 8)

you could also use 1/2 butter 1/2 shortening, which is hard to figure out....let see.....
1/4 cup = 4 tbsp
1/3 cup = 5 tbsp
1/2 cup = 8 tbsp
you could use 1/2 cup shortening and 1/4 cup butter
you could use 1/3 plus one tbsp of each

for this recipe, you incorporate the shortening into the flour first. make it resemble a course meal (crumby, but not bigger pea size crumbs). then, add the cubed COLD butter, and cut it in (this means use the pastry cutter or the 2 knives), so that it makes the big pea sized crumbs. keep the butter in the fridge until you are ready to add it. cold butter is harder to work in, so there is a better chance of success for flaky pastry.

the old school lard-converted recipe (this is actually really good, and easy to work)
2 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup crisco
beat together: 1 egg
2 tbsp ice water
1 tbsp white vinegar

add the wet to the dry, and mix as you do the other recipes. mmmm.

Beef Stew: turned out delicious!

I'm afraid my beef stew is often a hit or miss kind of thing....it all depends on how good the beef is. today we were lucky: the beef was excellent. i made this one in a slow cooker/crock pot

I started with 1 package of Renee's family's beef (how can you get better than that?) and 1 lb from my local butcher...

• Brown the beef in a heavy skillet. i tried the "blanch 2 pieces of bacon - i had a really thick single piece - to remove the smokey salty taste and then fry it in the pan that you sear your meat in"...but as it was from the local butcher it wasn't very fatty, so i added olive oil.
• remove beef from skillet and put it in slow cooker
• add a bit of flower, salt and pepper to the browned beef and stir so it coats the cubes
• saute 1 onion and 2 cloves of garlic in the skillet (don't clean it first...we are "de-glazing" or whatever....add a bit of red wine (whatever i had on hand...today it was Fuzion)...about 1/2 cup to 1 cup to get all the delicious off of the bottom of the pan...mmmm
• throw the softened onions into the crockpot

now it is time to add the seasonings and water/liquid to the mix:

• i added 1 1/2 or 2 cups of liquid that i reserved from defrosting tomatoes i had frozen. weird, i know. it looked like water but it tasted like tomatoes. i try to use EVERYTHING, so to honour my ingredients. the freezer is one of my best friends.
  
• if you don't have crazy tomato water, just use water, and the stew is better for adding a large chopped tomato
• chop up 3 - 4 carrots and throw 'em in
• cube 4 medium to large potatoes (depends on how much you like potatoes). i've also used tiny potatoes, but today i had 4 gorgeous P.E.I. potatoes that i got as a handout during my trip to the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto. awsome!
  
• add salt and pepper and 2 bay leaves. if you like other seasonings, go ahead, but this is a nice plain stew .... as my family is accustomed to eating. mmmm
• this works best when the crock pot is set to the highest (10 hrs) or second highest (8 hrs) setting. the slow cooking makes the cheaper cut of beef very tender.
  
• today i needed it faster than i could get it cooked on the crockpot, so in the last 1/2 hour of cooking, i dumped it into a dutch oven (heavy pot) and cranked on the heat. i added some flour/water solution to thicken the copious amounts of gravy, added frozen peas and corn (really great, actually), and simmered it for 20 min.
  

yum yum good. even picky david (my brother) liked it enough to pack it for his lunch tomorrow!!!

Other Jam Successes

All of the cookbooks suggest making jam without pectin products, because pectin products require a lot of sugar. my mom always used Certo pectin, so that is where i turned when i made my first batches of jam this summer. the production time is less than half of what it is to make jam without pectin.
Following the certo package instructions makes it very easy. The most important thing is to get great ripe fruit, in season. i do deviate from my mum's tradition in that i use the Certo Light, which requires about 1/2 the sugar as the regular Certo. the result is a gorgeous fruity jam where sugar doesn't overpower at all. mmmmm

Above is the peach jam made in august from Niagra region peaches. Unbelievable good. This jam tastes like fresh peaches. Very simple, and delicious! one batch of jam is a few peaches short of a basket (pint?) so there are some left over for eating fresh. how could i resist?

Blueberry jam. Straight up. this jam set more loosely than the peach, but tastes like a fresh blueberry compote. fabulous on home made cornmeal muffins.
The big surprise of the summer for me is this jam: plum nectarine. holy crap this jam is good!!!! i only used 3 nectarines, and the rest was the very cheap italian plums that are everywhere in august/september. wow! the flavour is amazing! good to note: the jam is a hideous greeny-brown colour until it cookes, then it is a gorgeous red-gold-red colour. sooo good.

weird looking cauliflower soup (but tasty)

this is a recipe i cobbled together from other recipes i found on the web, that were either too complicated or had too many ingredients that i didn't have on hand. it was really tasty!

cauliflower soup:

• chop up 1 head cauliflower
• chop 1 onion and garlic (a bit of garlic)

-saute the onion and garlic, then throw in cauliflower florets... i browed it a bit too much so the soup is more brown than creamy white

• add 2 bay leaves, some salt, some thyme and some french herbs. why not?
• add chicken soup stock, i used home made stuff that i keep in the freezer...about 4 cups or more

when veggies are nice and tender, added a bit of cream... not too much. the cream really changed the look of the soup. i think it would be just as tasty without cream. we ate it with some grated cheddar on top. mmmm

surprisingly good, and did not take too long to make.

here is a picture of rocket eating corn on the cob, for those who don't like cauliflower:

Making Crab Apple Jelly (most delicious)

making jelly and jam isn't very hard. i use the Certo (pectin) recipes, as my mother taught me.
we have a crab apple tree at the farm that has the BEST crab apples, but it only produces fruit once every few years.

first you need your crab apple juice.

• cut the blossom ends off the apples, and make sure you cut out any wormy parts. these are "organic" apples, worms, blemishes, and all
• leave the skins on, as it makes a really pretty blush coloured jelly
• fill a large spaghetti pot with apple bits, then add some water. i only fill the pot 1/2 way, but my mom used to fill it up to the top of the apples.
• boil them suckers down until they are very soft and ready to loose their juice!
• we always use an old (clean) pillowcase to filter the apple pulp from the juice. .
• Certo says "DON'T SQUEEZE THE JELLY BAG OR YOU WILL GET CLOUDY JELLY!!!"

• beautiful thick pink apple juice (you can freeze the leftover juice for another jelly batch)

sterilize your jars and lids.

• put the lids in a saucepan and bring it to a boil and simmer it with the lid on until you need them
• the clean jars can go in the oven to sterilize, i do it at 300 degrees.
  

making the jelly...

• i follow the instructions on the Certo box exactly.
• make sure it boils for the full minute, plus a little more
• stir gently so that the jelly does not burn on the bottom, but don't whip air into it
• watch your self! the hot jelly blurps all over!
• stir slowly and constantly when you remove the jelly from the heat.
  
• skim off all frothy bits of foam. this makes the jelly yucky

• pour the jelly into hot jars (so that they won't crack when the hot liquid hits the glass)
• clean off the lip of the jar before you place the lids on
• lightly screw the lids onto the jars. you can tighten them later
• let them cool, don't move them around too much, and give some space around the jars
• jars make a cool popping sound when they seal
• you can tell if mason jars are sealed by pressing down on the lid. if it moves, it is NOT sealed
• to seal jars that didn't seal, give them a 'hot water bath'

one problem i had this year was that my jelly was too hard. pectin is an apple product so perhaps i should have used less pectin? it tastes fabulous, and it might have been because i used tiny crappy crab apples from another tree. sometimes you can find beautiful crab apples at farmer's markets. mmmmm

Pumpkin Pie

i love pie. any day that starts with pie is a good day.
each season has its favourite type of pie, and right now my favourite is pumpkin.
when i make pumpkin pie, i use the recipe from The Joy Of Cooking. it is simple, and the best. use fresh cream instead of evaporated milk.
most importantly, use pie pumpkins. NOT jack'o'lantern pumpkins. they don't smell right when cooked.


Cooking Pumpkins (added to original post):

• cut sugar pie pumpkin in 1/2 and scoop out guts
• place shell side UP on a baking sheet and roast in 350° for about an hour until pumpkin is soft
• scoop out pumpkin flesh (it needs to be blended before using) and freeze it in 2 cup measures for future use

The Joy Of Cooking original recipe (for those who don't have it):

-line a pie plate with pie dough
-preheat oven to 425°
-mix until well blended:

• 2 cups pumpkin
• 1 1/2 cups rich cream (i use 18%)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar (i use 1/2 cup)
• 1/2 cup white sugar (i use 1/4 cup or all brown)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp allspice or nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp cloves (a pinch)
• 2 slightly beaten eggs

-pour mixture into chilled pie shell (if you chill your pie crust before you cook it, it makes it more flaky)
-bake at 425° for 15 min, then reduce heat to 350° and bake for 45 min longer or until the pie is set (use a knife or a toothpick, insert it into the center and if it comes out clean, it is done!)
-the Tartine cookbook says that the center can be wobbly, as it continues to cook after you take it out of the oven.... also, the pie sets due to the cream and eggs, so you can adjust the sugar to your taste

:)

the Rocket dog

this is rocket. we are buddies.