Pie on the other hand is a different story. If you make a mistake with the crust you can't just take it off from the filling and start all over again. It's a two part fairy tale story, the crust and filling have to be fantastic to be considered a yummilicious pie.
Baking pie is like a validation of the kitchen goddess in me, at least that's how I felt... it doesn't necessarily mean it's true :P
And so one day, out of the blue, I summoned the gods of courage and begged them to show me some as I was finally ending the virgin pie baker in me. It must have worked as I and everyone else love my first pie sooooo very much!
But the perfectionist in me won't stop and so I tweaked the filling to perfection. It's the best apple pie I've ever eaten and it'll now be on my list of comfort food until I'm wrinkly and grey.
Unfortunately I cannot share the pastry recipe I used but promised to find an equally amazeballs recipe soon. The crust recipe was given to me by my friend and was sworn to secrecy... and so secret it shall remain.
Tip 1: Once your filling is cooked, you can keep it in the fridge for a day or two
Tip 2:
Ingredients:
1 pastry recipe for a 9-inch double crust pie
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 golden apples or granny smith, peeled, cored and sliced
Sprinkles
3 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
Procedures:
Preheat oven to 425F.
Melt butter in saucepan, stir in flour and add water as soon as it becomes a paste. Add white and brown sugar, stir. Add sliced apples and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and let it simmer until sauce thickens and apples are half cooked.
Roll your chilled pastry and position it covering your pan. Fill it with apples and pour the sauce all over it, try and leave an inch from the top so that it doesn't spill over when it bubbles. Reserve the rest of sause for later use, ice cream topper, brushing lattice,,, I even used it on an experiment pineapple tartlets.
Going back to the pie.
Cover your pie with the other chilled rolled pastry or weave a lattice.
Chill the whole pie for 15 minutes.
Brush lattice with the reserved sauce. Brush the edges of the pie with milk. Sprinkle a mixture of sugar and cinnamon powder all over the top.
Bake 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees. Continue baking for 30 - 45 minutes. It's done when you poke the apple and it starts to give in. You want to have a little bit bite but not mashed.
The hardest part is resting your pie until the sauce regains its thick sauce. It's a torture smelling a sweet scent of cinnamon, sugar and apple all over the house but cannot eat until a few hours!
Don't put it in the fridge coz though it's nice piping hot from a microwave re-heated pie, the crust might lose it's flaky persona :P