The apples that have come with the winter CSA boxes are not attractive. But since I already paid for them, we will be eating them.
Ugly Apples
We had extra pie crust after the beef and bok choy pie, so instead of apple crisp, we decided to go old school and make pie.
I have yet to find a classic pie crust recipe that works for me. My next cooking mission is to solve that problem. First, I am going to try the Foolproof Pie Crust recipe recommended by Bonnie at Recipes Happen. No matter how long I have chilled/frozen my dough, it falls apart, gets sticky and I end up pressing in into the pie pan like shortbread and filling the pie from there. It isn’t pretty, but it works…..
Preheat oven to 500°. Using your favorite pie crust, roll out the bottom crust and place it in the pan. I have no advice to offer here. We did decide to bake this pie in an 8-9″ cast iron frying pan though.
For the filling:
- 5-6 medium sized apples (peeled, cored and quartered) I really hate peeling apples….
Place the apples in a bowl and toss with,
- 1 t. lemon juice, and
- lemon zest from 1 lemon
In a separate bowl, combine:
- 3/4 c. granulated sugar
- 1/4 c. unbleached all purpose flour
- 1/4 t. ground nutmeg
- 1/4 t. ground cinnamon
- 1/8 t. allspice
- 1/4 t. salt
When those are combined, toss with the apples, then pour all into the pie plate.
Because I had used some of the dough to top the beef and bok choy pie, I didn’t have enough dough to make a full top crust. I rolled it out and cut it into slices, then my daughter wove it into a lattice of sorts.
She said she wanted it to look like a “failed something cool, instead of just a failed something” 🙂
She then brushed our lattice crust with
- 1 beaten egg white, and sprinkled it with
- 1 T. unrefined sugar
We put the pie on a cookie sheet and reduced the oven temp. to 425°. Let that bake until the crust is golden brown, rotating the pie as necessary to prevent uneven browning.
The final result is presentable…
When finished baking, place the pie on a rack and allow to cool. We left it overnight and had pie for breakfast! It may not be pretty, what with the ugly apples and failed pie crust, but it tasted great! And the cast iron pan made the crust nice and crispy.
It looks like it still tastes good. 🙂 BUT I hope you like my pie crust recipe!! 🙂
Actually it looks very pretty to me! And ugly apples are never less tasty then those genetically modified to prefection round apples (experience : ) ). Anyway, if you are not happy with the pie crust recipes so far,you might also give a shot at this one, it never failed me: http://whilehewasout.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/valentines-day-apple-pie/
Thanks. My daughter thinks there is something wrong with pie crust recipes that have an egg. My snide response was “What, like it stays together?” I will give your suggestion a try as well.
Haha that’s so cute 😉
I love daughters–they can make neat things out of next to nothing (I’m not mocking your crust, I suck at crust and am in awe of yours merely because you made it) and still come up with something cool to say about it.
Great job turning ugly apples into a tasty breakfast, and awesome job eating pie for breakfast with the kids! They will remember that!
Cooking with the kids is lots of fun. They have a great sense of humor. 🙂
First of all, I love the idea of making the pie in the cast iron skillet! It looks so rustic and fancy! Second of all, it looks to me like your pie turned out very well!
Pie crust can definitely be tricky. And I am by no means an expert, but for me the thing that always seems to work well is just keeping everything as cold as possible to prevent the butter from melting. I stick the butter/shortening in the freezer for a half hour before I make it and I use ice water. Also, I knead it as little as possible to prevent the warmth from my hands from melting the butter. I’m sure everyone has a different trick, though!
Thanks for a great post!
We are experimenting, and maybe improving, on the pie crust front. Thanks for the tips.
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