Apple π Day!

It's that day again. I feel a little bad for not having come up with something more clever this year, but I haven't ever posted an apple pie recipe anyway, so why not. Every baker has to master this at some point.

I loosely followed a recipe from Simply Recipes, except I made a different crust recipe and used half granny smith and half Braeburn apples. I also made sure I had enough filling and crust left over to make a batch of these li'l apple pie bites.

Vodka Pie Crust
Most recipes calls for part butter, part shortening, but my kitchen is an all butter kitchen...
Makes enough for a pie top and bottom.

- 2.5 cups flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 sticks cold butter
- 1/4 cup cold vodka
- 1/4 cold water

Whisk together the flour, salt and sugar and then cut in the butter with a pastry blender, 2 knives, a food processor, or whatever your preferred method may be. Once the butter is about the size of peas, pour the liquid over and let it set for a minute to soak in. Gently knead the dough until it just comes together - don't over do it. Split in half, flatten into discs, and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for an hour or so, until firm.

Meanwhile....

Apple Pie Filling

- 2/3 cup sugar
- 3 tbsp flour
- 1/4 tsp ground allspice
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg (I grated it fresh)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 3 pounds of 1/4-1/2 inch thick slices of peeled and cored cooking apples
- 1.5 tbsp brandy
- 1 tsp vanilla

I had never made an apple pie with brandy or vanilla in it before - I have no problem whatsoever recommending those both in your mix! The aroma alone was divine.

So, I have this fancy table top device called an apple peeler/corer that is so easy to use (and makes the most amazing intact strings of apple skin you've ever seen!). It also slices the apples to just the right size for pie making purposes. I don't even make pies all that often, but would be completely sad to not have this device on hand for the few times I do; it's just that cool.

Anyway, once you've prepped your apples, however you choose to do that, put them in a large bowl and sprinkle the flours and spices over them, followed by the brandy and vanilla. I let this mix macerate for quite a bit while I worked on rolling out dough and sundry other multi-tasking chores. The smell is pretty intoxicatingly delicious, be warned.

So yes, at this point, you can roll out the dough if it has chilled long enough. Fit the bottom crust into your pie pan and trim the excess dough off the sides, and then fill the bottom crust with nice even, compact layers of apple slices. Be sure to fill it pretty high, as it will shrink down a bit once baked. Then roll out the 2nd piece of dough to make the top. To attach the top to the bottom crust, get your fingers wet with a little bit of water and run them along the seams before placing the top crust over the bottom. You can use a fork like I did to lightly squeeze the seams shut, or just use your fingers. I then carved a nice little π stamp into the top of mine (you should poke holes of some kind in the top to help with venting).

Now you can preheat your oven to 375˚ and pop this pie into the freezer until the oven is warmed up; It's just a nice way to make sure the butter is nice and solid before you pop it in the oven, ensuring a flakier crust. Bake for 15 minutes, and then drop the temperature to 350˚ and bake for another 30 minutes, or until the top is nice and brown. If the edges are getting browned too quickly, you can cover them with a rim of aluminum foil. I typically put a layer of aluminum foil down below the pie while baking, just in case the juices ooze out. I got lucky this time and had no spills. It was quite a lovely pie. Tasty too, though I admit, the filling didn't come out in perfect slices. Guess I have more experiments to do after all, to truly perfect the apple pie.

Happy π Day!

π Day = Apple Pie Cupcakes

Happy π Day!

In celebration of March 14, I made a pie inspired Apple Pie Cupcake. I thought this was a cute idea, but it didn't turn out to be the most photogenic one. Beige frosting on beige cupcake with white wrapper on white background. If I thought ahead, I could have at least saved one of those deliciously green Granny Smith's to pop in the background for a boost of color. You will simply have to take my word for the fact they're quite tasty even though they look rather dull. 

Make Approx. 16.

Apple Juice reduction:

Boil down 1 cup of apple juice until thick and syrupy - approximately 2 tablespoons worth. Cool.

Basic Vanilla Cupcake:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup plain yogurt (or sour cream, or buttermilk)

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup oil

Preheat oven to 350˚. Line cupcake tins. 

In medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. In larger bowl, beginning with gently whisking eggs, mix together the rest of the wet ingredients. Mix dry into wet until blended. 

Filling:

1 tbs butter

2 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced. 

3 tbs brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and add apples. Once the apples start to sizzle, add a dash of water and cover with lid for about 5 minutes, or until apples are semi-translucent. Break apples up with a wooden spoon until only smaller chunks remain. Add brown sugar and stir until apples are coated and syrupy. Remove from heat. 

Frosting:

3/4 cups butter, room temperature

2-1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 tbs apple juice reduction

Whip butter until smoothly. Slowly add in powdered sugar until combined. Scrape sides of bowl before adding the apple juice reduction. Whip until smooth and creamy. I added a little dab of red and yellow food coloring to try and get the color a little more "baked pie crust" color, but should have done a little bit more. 

Once the cupcakes are cooled, remove centers of cupcakes using a melon baller (or any other tool you prefer). Fill cavity with apple sauce filling. Pipe a large dollop of frosting onto each cupcake. Using an offset spatula, smooth each dollop into a uniform mound, tapering at the sides. Using a small frosting tip, pipe curly cues around the edges of the cupcake, to make it look like a pie crust.  I tried putting little divots in the tops of each cupcake, similar to the venting holes you cut into pie crusts, but they didn't look very good, so I did without. I highly recommend using a different colored cupcake wrapper too. Gotta liven these up a bit. 

In any case, Happy Pi Day. I want to leave you with a little Pi story that I just learned about recently. Back in 1897, the Indiana legislature almost passed a bill to legally define pi as a rounded off 3.2. Their only saving grace was the presence of a Mathematics professor from Purdue who gave the Congress an impromptu math lesson on why that was impossible. Nice try!