Saturday, October 4, 2008

Apple Days = Apple Pi

I mean apple pie... hehe...

In good ole Greenville today there was Apple Days! on the square. I was intrigued so I thought I would check it out. I walked through the whole shindig in about 10 minutes, finding a lot of fried food, a lot of kids, and a lot of garage sale stuff. However, I did buy a 5-lb. bag of apples at Wayne's Produce stand. So I thought... I must bake something with apples. I found a recipe for caramel apple pie that sounded good, so I spent my afternoon baking it.

Before I begin the process of the apple pie baking--a little about my programming. This week we studied and worked with interfaces. It seems pretty simple, and I was able to create my program pretty quickly, even without tutoring help. I'm glad that I'm feeling more comfortable with the material. Anyways, onto the pie.

First, I made a home-made pie crust. You could just buy a pre-made one at the store, but I'm cheap and I already had the ingredients to make one homemade. It doesn't take long, and it tastes wonderful.


For this crust, start with 1 1/4 cups flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add 1/3 cup shortening in little chunks. Then cut the shortening in with two knives, or a pastry cutter.
Next, add 4-5 tablespoons of cold water until the mixture starts to hold together. Then roll it all into a ball. Roll the ball into a big flat circle. Or, an amoeba-like blob, like mine. Whatever works.

Then, fold the circle into fourths and place in pie plate. Unfold in pie plate, and flute edges. I did this special scallop edge thing, but you can just fold it under if you want. Or, you can do like my mom does, and press the edges with a fork.


Now for the filling. First you must start with the apples.



I didn't use all these apples, I think I used 8. You need to turn the above apples into the below apples. You do this by peeling slicing. It takes a long time. To avoid boredom, I moved my peeling and slicing station into the living room so I could watch TV. This was probably not the most sanitary move, but it's not like our house is that sanitary anyways.


Next up, you need to chop pecans for the filling and the crumb topping. If you have a food processor, you could just throw the pecans in there and chop them up. However, I don't, so I just used a knife. I chopped up probably about a cup. You could also use walnuts, and that would probably taste great, too.


Save half of these chopped pecans for the crumb topping. Mix the other half with 1/3 cup brown sugar, 3 tablespoons white sugar, 4 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, and 1 tablespoon cornstarch. Then mix this with the apples. Resulting in this.

Next, comes the secret to the caramel apple pie. Spread about 1/4 cup of caramel ice cream topping in the bottom of the crust. Then, dump the whole apple mixture into the caramel-lined crust. Then, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and drizzle that over the apples. This is not a healthy pie, folks. Well, it's probably healthier than a caramel-lined chocolate pie. But that will be for a different day.

Somehow I did not get a picture of the apple-filled crust. Oh wells.


Now for the crumb topping.


Combine in a bowl the following: rest of the pecans from earlier, 3/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup brown sugar, and 6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into chunks.

Do the same you did earlier for the crust, cut the butter into the dry ingredients. Then sprinkle the whole mixture over the apples in the pan. It should look like this.




Put this baby in a 350* oven for 55-60 minutes, or until it is golden brown and gets all juicy. Mmmmm....
I had a hard time getting the lighting right with these finished pictures. There was no natural light, as it was nighttime.

Some friends came over to watch the Cubs. What's more American than baseball and apple pie?


Cole

Tim








Thanks guys for taste-testing!


Happy baking everyone!

Here's the recipe:

Caramel Apple Pie

  • 7 cups sliced apples
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup chopped pecans
  • 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 4 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
  • 1 unbaked pie shell
  • 2 tablespoons melted butter
  • CRUMB TOPPING, recipe follows

Combine apples with lemon juice and vanilla. Combine pecnas, brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, and cornstarch; add to apples. Spread caramel topping in bottom of unbaked pie shell. Pour apple mixture over caramel. Drizzle with melted butter. Top with CRUMB TOPPING. Bake at 350* for 55-60 minutes, until golden brown and bubbly.

CRUMB TOPPING

  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 2/3 cup chopped pecans
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 6 tablespoons cold butter

Combine flour, pecans, and brown sugar. Cut in butter until crumbly.

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