TWD: All-American, All-Delicious Apple Pie

"It's like rain on your wedding day
It's a free ride when you've already paid
It's the good advice that you just didn't take
Who would've thought ... it figures"

Remember that mid 90's Alanis Morissette song, "Ironic"? The thing I remember most about it is my Middle School English teacher insisting to us that most of the lyrics were not in fact examples of Irony at all, but that's beside the point. Sadly the lyrics sort of sum up my week, you see today is my pick for Tuesdays with Dorie and I've been so excited about picking for literally two years now and ironically (or is it ironic? my brain has clearly atrophied since I received a B.A. in English three short years ago), my kids have been sick all week and I have had no time to bake! While, normally, a measly cold wouldn't keep me out of the kitchen, Eloise got a stomach virus on Wednesday and of course passed it to Helen. And just when they started to get over it, Eloise's cold turned into an ear infection, which, of course, transformed back into a stomach virus! Anyway, I had been dreaming of making this pie just about every single day since I picked it at the end of September but didn't actually get to round up all of the ingredients and get down to business until Monday afternoon. I ended up making the crust during Helen's nap while Eloise sat whining on my hip and then later assembled the pie during Eloise's nap while trying to keep Helen's little germy hands out of the sugar coated apples! Needless to say, my results were less than stellar. The pie tasted good, but it sure wasn't pretty!



Now, let me rewind a bit and say that, first of all, I LOVE apple pie. I really, really love apple pie, and I would choose it over any other dessert, even those involving chocolate (which is saying a lot!). In fact, when I was little, I often would request apple pie in place of a birthday cake! So, I couldn't wait to try Dorie's version. Now while I've made quite a few apple pies over the years, I've never made a double crusted one. Usually, my mom tops her pies with a lattice crust, and, every Thanksgiving, my Uncle Mark makes his famous Dutch apple pie with a crumb topping, so I've always stuck to either lattice or crumbs because they're the only two I've really felt confident doing. Well my friends, there is a reason that I never tried the double crust. I know that if I'd had a little more time and and a little more energy and, perhaps, if I had had a little less chaos in my kitchen, then I would have had a little more success with this pie. And, let me just say, making a double crust is not what one might call, "easy as pie". Shortly after it entered the oven, my vents caved in and the whole thing just kind of fell apart. The good news is that Dorie's Good for Almost Everything Pie Crust is really just that- with that much butter it would be nearly impossible for the finished product not to be flaky and delicious!


Now I'm still a little on the fence about the filling. You see, I've never used tapioca in a fruit pie before- I've always sprinkled a tablespoon or two of flour in with my apples. While the tapioca did not change the flavor of the filling, it did cause the apple juice to gel more than I'm accustomed to. I can't say that I disliked it, and it certainly wasn't gummy or gloppy like I feared it might be, but I missed that looser, juicer filling. I completely forgot the graham cracker crumbs that were supposed to be on the bottom crust, but my crust still stayed pretty sturdy, so I don't think that was too big of a loss. I really loved how Dorie calls for so many apples to "mound" over the crust. I don't usually use six apples in my pies, but I thought it gave a perfect ratio of fruit to crust. I went with Dorie's suggestion to use a variety of apples (yet another first for me) and ended up using Honeycrisps, Galas, Macintoshes, and Fujis- this was another wonderful improvement because it allows the filling to have so many different textures and flavors.

So, all in all, the pie was a success, and, although it turned out somewhat unattractive (ok, it was ugly), I am determined to try the double crust again... you know when the baby I'm pregnant with now is in Middle School and I have an hour or two to myself! Thanks everyone for baking along with me this week- I hope you have a wonderful new recipe for your Thanksgiving feast this year!!

All-American, All-Delicious Apple Pie
from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours

For a 9 inch Double Crust

3 cups all purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
1 ½ tsp salt
2 ½ sticks very cold unsalted butter, cut into tbsp size pieces
1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces
About ½ cup ice water

Put the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor fitted with a metal blade, pulse just to combine the ingredients. Drop in the butter and shortening and pulse only until the butter and shortening are cut into the flour. Don’t overdo the mixing- what you’re aiming for is to have some pieces the size of fat green peas and others the size of barley. Pulsing the machine on and off, gradually add about 6 tbsps of the water- add a little water and pulse once, add some more water, pulse again and keep going that way. Then use a few long pulses to get the water into the flour. If, after a dozen or so pulses, the dough doesn’t look evenly moistened or form soft curds, pulse in as much of the remaining water as necessary, or even a few drops more, to get a dough that will stick together when pinched. Big pieces of butter are fine. Scrape the dough out of the bowl and onto a work surface.

Divide the dough in half. Gather each half into a ball, flatten each ball into a disk and wrap each half in plastic. Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour before rolling (if your ingredients were very cold and you worked quickly, though, you might be able to roll the dough immediately: the dough should be as cold as if it had just come out of the fridge).

To Roll Out the Dough: Have a buttered 9 inch pie plate at hand.

You can roll the dough out onto a floured surface or between sheets of wax paper or plastic wrap or in a rolling slipcover. If you’re working on a counter, turn the dough over frequently and keep the counter floured. If you are rolling between paper, plastic or in a slipcover, make sure to turn the dough over often and to life the paper, plastic, or cover frequently so that it doesn’t roll into the dough and form creases.

If you’ve got time, slide the rolled out dough into the fridge for about 20 minutes to rest and firm up.
For the Pie

4 pounds (about 6 very large) apples
3/4 cup sugar
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8-1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons graham cracker crumbs (or dry bread crumbs)
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into bits

For the Glaze (optional)
Milk or heavy cream
Decorating (coarse) or granulated sugar

Getting Ready: Butter a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate (I use a Pyrex pie plate). If you want to use a standard 9-inch pie plate, just reduce the amount of filling by about one quarter.

Working on a well-floured surface (or between wax paper or plastic wrap), roll out one piece of the dough to a thickness of about 1/8 inch. Fit the dough into the buttered pie plate and trim the edges to a 1/2-inch overhang. Roll the other piece of dough into a 1/8-inch-thick circle and slip it onto a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat. Cover both the circle and the crust in the pie plate with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 20 minutes, while you preheat the oven and prepare the filling. (If it's more convenient, the crust can be well covered and kept refrigerated overnight.)

Getting Ready to Bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Peel, core and slice the apples. You've got a choice for slicing: you can cut each apple in half and then slice each half crosswise or lengthwise into slices about 1/4 inch thick, or you can cut the apples into chunks about 1/4 to 1/2 inch on a side. In either case, put the apples into a large bowl and add the sugar, lemon zest tapioca, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Toss everything together really well- I do this with my hands. If you've got a little time, let the mix sit for about 5 minutes, until juice starts to accumulate in the bottom of the bowl.

Remove the pie plate and top crust from the refrigerator and put the pie plate on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat. Sprinkle the crumbs evenly over the bottom of the crust-this will help keep it from getting too soggy (some sog is inevitable)- and then turn the apples and their juices into the crust. The apples will heap over the top of the crust. Pat them into an even mound. Dot the apples with the bits of cold butter.

Very lightly moisten the rim of the bottom crust with water, then center the top crust over the apples. (If the crusts-top and bottom- are still very cold and in danger of cracking when you work with them, let them sit at room temperature for about 5 minutes.) Either fold the overhang from the top crust under the bottom crust and crimp the crust attractively, or press the top crust against the bottom crust and trim the overhang from both crusts even with the rim of the pie plate. If you've pressed and trimmed the crust, use the tines of a fork to press the two crusts together securely.

Use a sharp paring knife to cut about 6 slits int eh top crust. I always use the wide end of a piping tip to cut a circle out of the center of the crust as a steam vent. if you'd like, brush the top crust with a little milk or cream and sprinkle it with sugar.

Bake the pie for 15 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 375 degrees F, and bake the pie for another 50 to 60 minutes (total baking time is between 65 and 75 minutes), or until the crust is gorgeously browned and the juices bubble up through the top crust. After about 40 minutes in the oven, if the top crust looks as if it's browning too quickly, cover the pie loosely with a foil tent.

Transfer the pie to a rack and let it rest until it is only just warm or until it reaches room temperature.

TWD: Caramel Pumpkin Pie

Just like most food bloggers in Fall, I have the pumpkin bug. I tried to tell myself that I'd hold off until the weather felt more like Fall, but let's face it, in New Orleans that might not happen until late November! So I was delighted when I saw that Janell of Mortensen Family Memoirs had chosen Caramel Pumpkin Pie for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe! Of course, when I went to the store to buy the pumpkin puree I had to pick up a few extra cans and even though I didn't snap any pictures I ended up making these delicious Pumpkin Scones from Bridget of The Way the Cookie Crumbles (they are easy to make and amazing, please make them soon) for Eloise's baptism brunch last week:

That's my mom doing the baptism! She's an Episcopal priest which works out nicely because Eloise didn't wiggle around or fuss for her "GiGi" while she poured the water on her head the way many babies do!

Then when I woke up on Saturday morning at 4:30 am with my little early-risers I decided to make this Pumpkin Bread from AllRecipes- I have tried a few other pumpkin bread recipes but this one really is the best, very moist and very spicy.


Anyway, onto the pie! I really like pumpkin pie, but it's never been a family favorite for Thanksgiving: my dad likes it, my Uncle Bobby likes it, and that's about it. So I've made a plain old back of the can Libby's Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving once or twice but it never gets eaten the way that pecan, apple, and cranberry pie do. I was excited to try a different pumpkin pie recipe, especially because Dorie describes the pie as a more sophisticated and unusual pumpkin pie because of the very dark (almost black) caramel that is mixed into the usual pumpkin pie components. I really liked this pie, and so did Eloise, but Helen and Derrick didn't even touch it, so we ended up with quite a bit that didn't get eaten. The pie is still pumpkin-y but it has that smokey, sweet-bitter burnt sugar flavor too. Two things that surprised me about this pie were that 1) the caramel does not taste very sweet on it's own so I was concerned that the pie would be very bitter, but the pie itself has a wonderful flavor- no need to worry! 2) Dorie says that the pie shouldn't jiggle at all and that a knife will come out clean when the pie is done. My pie took about 7 extra minutes to bake and then I went ahead and pulled it out even though it still jiggled and the knife was not completely clean and the consistency of the pie was perfect once it had time to cool.

The thing that impressed me most about this pie was how crisp and flaky my crust stayed! Even with a partially baked crust, I've never really been able to keep the crust on my pumpkin pies from getting soft- but Dorie's Good For Almost Anything Pie Crust did the trick! I would definitely make this again and I'm going to try the almond streusel topping from the playing around section!

TWD: Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart

I was telling my Tweetie about this tart the other day when she said, "honey, I don't know how you have the time to bake!" and it got me thinking. You see, I don't have the time to bake. I have to make the time. As cliché as it might sound, baking and cooking keep me sane. I stay at home all day long and care for my darling daughters, I clean the house, I do dozens of loads of laundry, I do all of the grocery (and other) shopping, but baking is something I can always squeeze into my schedule because I can do it any time of day, it's (mostly) inexpensive, and I don't have to leave the house to get it done. I love being in the kitchen and I love feeding people. The time I spend in the kitchen is my creative time. Oh, and of course, I love eating what I've made too!
Well this tart was definitely worth my time! Carla of Chocolate Moosey chose this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe (recipe is on Carla's blog). I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I love Dorie's Sweet Tart Dough- I love it, I love it, I love it! The crust always turns out delicious and beautiful and it is made in the food processor! But the crust is not the greatest part of this tart. The really special part of the tart is a thin layer of soft caramel studded with honey-roasted peanuts. The caramel is very easy to make and tasted divine- I could have eaten it with a spoon. Anyway, the caramel is hidden under a thick layer of chocolate ganache. For some reason, my ganache was a little too soft- I think I might have measured out the chocolate incorrectly- but it still tasted great. Dorie says that the tart should set in the refrigerator for no longer than 30 minutes but I actually kept mine in the refrigerator and had no problems with the crust getting soggy or the caramel getting hard. I didn't really think about it at first, but this was kind of like a very dressy snickers pie. I think I'm going to bring this tart to Thanksgiving this year.

TWD: Flaky Apple Turnovers

I can't believe that I started this blog over a year ago! I have done a lot of baking in the last year and most of it I owe to Tuesdays with Dorie. This group has forced me to really stretch out of my baking comfort zone and learn how to do things I always wanted to know how to do but never made time for. These apple turnovers are a perfect example: I've made tons of apple pies, in fact I LOVE apple pie, but I've never done individual turnovers. First of all there's no pie plate or tart pan to shape the crust, and then there's the fact that you have to make a bunch of tiny individual turnovers instead of one big pie. Basically, I would have never taken the time to make these if Julie of Someone's in the Kitchen had not picked them. Thank goodness she did!


These are terribly labor intensive but also very delicious. The dough consists of three sticks of butter cut into flour and then mixed with sour cream and a little sugar. You wrap the dough in saran wrap, stick it in the fridge for a few hours, roll it out and then fold it like a business letter, stick it back in the fridge for a couple hours, roll it out again and cut it, fill it, and bake the turnovers. I made mine into triangles even though Dorie instructs the baker to make them into little half circles. I think I would do these as crescents next time because I think I'd be able to fit more apple into them. The only change I made to the recipe was increasing the 1/4 tsp of cinnamon to 1/2 tsp and honestly I might even increase that a bit more next time- but I'm sort of a cinnamon freak.
One of the greatest things about this recipe is that it makes around 16 large turnovers and you can freeze the turnovers unbaked for up to two months and take them directly out of the freezer and pop them in the over anytime! I have about 12 in the freezer right now, just waiting for a dessert rainy day!

TWD: Chocolate Cream Tart

This is going to be a short but extremely sweet post. This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was chosen by Kim of Scrumptious Photography (recipe is on her blog). I made this delicious tart for Easter and everyone who tasted it really loved it- not just polite, "thank you, that was delicious" but like really wanted another slice and asked for the recipe loved it!


The crust is a chocolate shortbread that you make in the food processor and press into the tart pan. I always press my dough into the pan and then leave it in the refrigerator overnight before baking it- I find that the unfilled shell doesn't puff up as much that way. This is not a sweet chocolate crust- instead it has an intensely chocolate flavor but maintains the somewhat saltiness of normal pie crust. I was skeptical at first- but it pairs magnificently with the chocolate cream!


The cream is a chocolate pastry cream that you cook on the stove- also very easy! The one strange thing is how quickly it thickens- you feel like you are stirring a liquidy, milky substance for a few minutes and then in 3 seconds it becomes the cream! The flavor of the cream is divine and the texture is so silky!

Finally you top it with whipped cream- I doubled mine because I wanted to do it up big for Easter!

Thanks to my mom who took these pictures for me at the party at my aunt's house since they cut the pie while I was putting Helen Mae down for a nap- she's a really great mom!!

TWD: French Pear Tart and Why I Have Been MIA...

I'm back! I feel so bad that I have let myself slip like this- but the important thing is that I'm back now! To be honest, the reason that I have been so absent these last few months is that I'm pregnant again! Yep, baby #2 will be here in July- which means that I have been wracked with fatigue and extreme food aversions- however, I'm happy to report that I am now entering into the 2nd trimester so my energy is coming back and slowly but surely the thought of nearly every single type of food no longer makes me ill. I was especially happy that this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe for the French Pear Tart sounded appealing to me because it was chosen by none other than Dorie Greenspan! How exciting is that?! Be sure to check out her blog for the recipe and to see how this thing should really look!!


The tart is really delicious! The crust is buttery and slightly sweet and the filling is comprised mostly of ground almonds, butter, sugar- of course this is all topped off by sliced fresh pears! While the pie baked I felt instantly transported back to my semester abroad in France. The scent of the buttery pastry mixed with the almonds was so reminiscent of the bakeries that stood on every street corner. This is the kind of dessert that tastes really complicated but is actually pretty simple and yields excellent results!


So I'll leave you with this:
Helen Mae... showing off one of her newest tricks: squinting. Note how she is blissfully unaware that in a few short months she'll be sharing the spotlight with baby peanut.

TWD: Thanksgiving Twofer Pie

Vibi from La Casserole Carree chose Thanksgiving Twofer Pie for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. I would have loved to have brought this to Thanksgiving dinner in Tennessee but I didn't have access to a kitchen for a long period of time and the pie would not have lasted from Saturday until Thursday- so alas, I had to make the Thursday before Thanksgiving. I thought of it as a sort of warm up for the big day. This pie is such a great idea that it's kind of crazy that it hasn't become a more popular Thanksgiving dessert. It is a mix of pumpkin pie on the bottom and pecan pie on the top- a perfect pairing!

Now this was also my first time using Dorie's pie crust recipe- and I have to say that I'm a bit undecided as to wether or not I like it yet! The crust came together very easily in the food processor. It uses a mix of (mostly) butter and (a bit of) shortening- so you get the buttery taste with a little more forgiving dough. If you had asked me what I though of the crust at this stage:


I would have undoubtedly said "I love it! I won't go back to my old standard!" but after I pre-baked the crust it had some little rips on the sides which was somewhat disapointing.


Then the even stranger thing was that the recipe called for pre-baking the crust for about 28 minutes and then baking the pie for something like 45 minutes- so that poor crust was in the oven for over an hour! I ended up putting a crust shield on top of it for the last 20 or so minutes but I still found it to be very dark brown. I can't say that it tasted like I'd burned it exactly, it was just very close to edge...


The fillings were fantastic though! I loved the consistency and taste of the creamy pumpkin filling and the delicious crunch and flavor of the pecan topping! I honestly love that combo! I think I'll try prebaking for a shorter period of time when I make this pie again- and I will be baking this again- I don't think I can go back to regular pumpkin pie ever again!

Tarte au Citron

Helen Mae, Derrick (my husband), and I are house sitting this week for my lovely aunt and uncle who are vacationing in Chicago. And let me tell you, it's pretty fun. They live in a beautiful old house in Mid City- a historic New Orleans neighborhood located between Uptown and Downtown. It's a part of the city which experienced a good deal of flooding during Katrina- but it's also a part of the city that has been determined to make a comeback.My Aunt Dottie's house was one that flooded and because it was a very, very old house all of the electrical wiring was under the house instead of in the attic- you can imagine the kind of damage that occurred. It took them well over a year to get back into their old home. However, the small silver lining was that they were able to use the insurance not only to fix things back to how they used to be, but to actually do some renovation to parts of the house that they would have liked to have done before. The biggest change was an enormous extension to their kitchen- they knocked down the wall to their den and just turned the whole thing into a glorious cooking, dining, lounging space. It is absolutely my dream kitchen!!


So anyway, I've been loving cooking and baking in it for the week- and to top things off, my aunt told me to use the pie dough that she had mixed up but had been unable to use before she left. Yesterday I made this beautiful Tarte au Citron using Ina Garten's recipe for lemon curd. I had never made lemon curd before- and although mine took more than double the time to thicken on the stove- it turned out beautiful and delicious! Enjoy!

Delectable Plum...Nectarine? Galette

I found this beautiful fruit while at Sam's Club the other day. I thought they were plums- but then decided they might be too big and not quite dark enough to be plums. So then my mom suggested that they might be nectarines- so we did a google search and found that plums are in the same family as nectarines, peaches (no surprise) and...almonds. I guess that makes sense because the pit found in the center of stone fruit looks a lot like an almond. Anyway, I am still unsure about what these lovely fruit are- but they are delicious.

I found this recipe on one of my favorite blogs: Cream Puffs in Venice. Her galette is about 400 times prettier than mine- but mine did turn out tasty. I had never worked with pâte brisée, which uses butter instead of shortening. It is definitely more temperamental than my old standard pie crust recipe- but the taste was delicious- it ends up being more like a shortbread cookie than a pie crust. Anyway thank you Ivonne for this lovely recipe!