Apple Crumb Pie and Blog-i-versary

Today marks my first blog-i-versary! My blog was born a year ago today. In that time, I've written eighty-four posts, between six and nine per month (except for those months when I was overseas). I now get around two hundred hits per month. Blogger tells me that I have nine followers, but I know there are more that follow via blog readers who aren't counted. Not bad for an enterprise that I am reluctant to promote.

I have two resolutions for my next year of blogging. The first is to try to promote the blog a bit. I'm toying with the idea of business cards. At the very least, I need to bring it up in conversation with people. The second resolution, which I'm already working on, is to take better pictures. I need to learn more about my camera and work on food styling. I can't fix the terrible lighting in my kitchen, or the ugly green countertop, but I can find new places to take my pictures. Here's to another fun year of recipe testing!

To celebrate my blog-i-versary, I made a pie from the lovely fresh apples I mentioned in my last post. I have grown to love apple pie, but I have no interest in the double-crusted varieties. I don't really understand the second crust - I suppose that I don't love pie crust enough to appreciate it. I'd much rather have sugary, cinnamony crumbs atop my pie. So that's what we have here. A little allspice and nutmeg gives the pie a nice kick. Served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, it's the perfect fall treat!  

Apple Crumb Pie

Adapted from Baking Bites.

Crust: 

1 1/4 c flour

1 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

6 tbsp cold butter

4 tbsp ice water

Filling: 

3 large apples

2 tsp lemon juice

1/2 c light brown sugar

2 tbsp flour

1 1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

1 tsp vanilla extract

Crumb topping:

1 1/4 c flour

1/2 c brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt 

1/2 c butter, melted and cooled

Prepare your crust:

Put flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse to combine. Cut your butter into teaspoon-sized pieces and add to the flour mixture. Pulse until the butter is no bigger than pea-sized and blended into the flour. Add water until a ball of dough forms. Make that ball into a disc, cover in plastic wrap and chill about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out on a floured surface into a circle that fits your pie pan (I used a 9" pan, but I think this recipe could fit any pan from 8-10").

Transfer the crust to your pie dish.(Mine was pretty firm, so I just lifted it with my hands. If your dough seems more delicate, you may want to wrap it around your rolling pin to make the transfer.)Press in gently to fill the dish.

Use your knife to cut off the excess dough, or run your rolling pin over it (my preferred method, although the little handles on my pie dish get in the way, so I need to touch it up with a knife). The extra dough can be re-wrapped and refrigerated or frozen for later use (I generally use these to make tiny pies later on).

Make the filling:
Put the lemon juice in a medium bowl. Peel, core and thinly slice the apples, adding them to the bowl and tossing with lemon juice as you go. Mix in the rest of the ingredients and toss to combine. Let stand a few minutes.

Prepare the crumb topping:
In another bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Add the melted butter and stir until crumbs form.

Pour the apple mixture into your pie crust in an even layer.

Sprinkle crumb topping on top, being careful to cover the apples completely.

Bake for 20 minutes at 425°F. Lower the oven temperature to 375°F and bake for an additional 35-40 minutes. If the crumbs begin to brown too much (like mine did), you might want to cover the pie with foil. Cool before cutting. Serve with a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream!

French Silk Pie

Jeff and I hosted a barbecue on Saturday night, so I got to make some tasty desserts. I made my peach crumb bars again, this time with cherries (a decent filling, but not worth the effort of pitting and chopping them!), and some oatmeal cookies. I also wanted to do some kind of pie (I'm always looking for an excuse for pie), so I dug out this recipe. I'd made this pie for a summer function at my parents' house last year and it was a huge hit. And this past weekend it didn't disappoint either.

This pie is so easy to make. Just throw things in the stand mixer and go. It takes a bit of time, since each egg needs to be beaten for five minutes, but that meant I could get all my kitchen clean-up done at the same time. The result is a light, fluffy cream pie with just the right hint of chocolate. The raw eggs are what give it the silky texture.

What? Raw eggs, you ask? Yes, this recipe includes raw eggs. But if you're using eggs from a source you trust, it's not so risky an endeavor (my eggs were from these chickens at Cherry Grove Farm). Also, most harmful bacteria lives on the outside of the shells, so if you crack your eggs cleanly, you can keep the inside from having much contact with any germs. And anyway, is eating a few raw eggs any riskier than many of the chemical substances we put into our bodies on a daily basis? I'd rather trust nature . . .

So try this pie at your next cookout. It's fluffy texture is perfect for a summer evening. And you'll get lots of nice compliments from your friends and neighbors, as I did from mine!

French Silk Pie
Adapted from Tracy's Culinary Adventures.

1 9" pie crust (recipe below)

1/2 c butter, room temperature

3/4 c + 1 tsp sugar

1 oz bittersweet chocolate (doesn't sound like much, but it's enough)

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs, room temperature

1 c heavy cream

1/4 tsp cornstarch

Bake your pie crust first and let cool.

Chop your chocolate and melt it using a double boiler (I use a metal bowl on top of a pot, as you can see below). Cool slightly.

Use a stand mixer to cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the melted chocolate and vanilla extract. Add one egg and beat at medium speed for 5 minutes. Scrape down the bowl. Add the second egg and beat another 5 minutes. The mixture should be light and smooth.

Pour the chocolate into a pre-baked pie shell and refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving (I let mine set up for a few hours before adding the whipped cream).

Using a mixer (I sometimes prefer my hand mixer for whipped cream), whip the cream, 1 tsp sugar and 1/4 tsp cornstarch (the cornstarch helps the cream maintain its texture, but don't add too much or it will taste funny!). Spread whipped cream over the chocolate filling. Garnish with shaved chocolate and serve!


Single Pie Crust
From The Baking Bites Cookbook. (I've posted this crust recipe before, but did not include the pre-baking information, so here it is again!)

1 1/4 c flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
8 tbsp cold butter, cut into small chunks
4-5 tbsp ice water (using the food processor, 4 is enough)

Combine your flour, salt and sugar in a food processor. Pulse to combine. Add the chunks of butter and pulse until no pieces larger than a pea remain. Add ice water and mix until the dough comes together as a ball. (If you don't have a food processor, combine the butter with the flour mixture using your hands or a pastry cutter.) Form the dough into a small disc, wrap it in plastic wrap and store it in the refrigerator for at least one hour before using.

Prick the bottom a few times with a fork. Line the inside of the crust with aluminum foil and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake 25 minutes at 375°, until lightly browned. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes, until the edges are medium brown. Cool before filling.

Thanksgiving Pie Adventures 2

This post is going to be a bit light on the pictures - I decided not to put the whipped cream on the pie until just before serving, so it is still unfinished. But here's the post about it, at least, for your holiday enjoyment!

. . . . . . .

The other pie I made for this Thanksgiving is a pumpkin cream pie. Like I said in a previous post, I've been baking pumpkin pies for my family's Thanksgiving since middle school. What I didn't say is that my grandmother usually bakes one too. I like my pies better - she's a bit too light on the spices for my taste (though she makes a mean crust! - until recently, I'd always used the frozen ones). So since Grandma is making a normal pumpkin pie anyway, I thought I'd try out a recipe for pumpkin cream pie. I think the lightness of the cream will be a good counterpoint to the over-eating at dinner.

The recipe is pretty simple and the elements I tried were pretty tasty. I was a bit skeptical about the cream. It does call for 1/4 c cornstarch. That's a cup - not a tablespoon or teaspoon. I don't think I've ever encountered a recipe that called for more than a tablespoon of cornstarch! I definitely see the benefit, though - when I started cooking it on the stovetop, it went from a liquid to a solid in just a few whisks. It was like watching instant pudding set as you frantically try to ladle it out in equal measures. It took a thin, milky mixture and converted it into a thick cream. It still needs to set in the refrigerator for several hours, but you get a clear sense of the final product at that point. It was tasty, too. I look forward to tasting the pie in its entirety at Thanksgiving dinner!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Pumpkin Cream Pie
From Martha Stewart Living, November 2010.

Gingersnap crust:
1 1/4 c ground gingersnap cookies (~25 cookies)
2 tbsp sugar
pinch salt
4 tbsp butter, melted and slightly cooled

Pumpkin Cream filling:
2 c whole milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
pinch cloves
1/2 c sugar
pinch salt
4 egg yolks
1/4 c cornstarch
1 1/4 c pumpkin puree (or one 15 oz can)
1 tbsp butter, room temperature
1 1/4 c heavy cream (to whip for topping the pie)
pinch nutmeg (for garnish)

Make the crust:
Preheat oven to 350°. Combine gingersnaps, sugar and pinch of salt in a bowl (I found that the gingersnaps didn't grind as finely as graham crackers might, but were still small enough for a proper crust). Stir in melted butter. Press mixture into the bottom and sides of a 9" pie plate. Refrigerate until set, about 15 minutes. Bake until the crust is golden brown - about 15 minutes (I don't know about golden brown - gingersnaps are dark brown already. It's pretty hard to tell). Set aside to cool.

Make the filling:

Add the milk, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, 1/4 c sugar, and salt to a saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks, cornstarch and 1/4 c sugar in a medium bowl. Once it has simmered, gradually mix 1/2 c of the milk mixture into the yolk mixture, then gradually whisk in the remaining milk mixture. Return the whole mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat for about 2 minutes, whisking constantly (this is where, after a minute or so, it suddenly converted from a liquid to a semi-solid). Remove from heat. Immediately whisk in pumpkin, then butter.

Strain the filling through a fine sieve into a clean bowl. (I could not do this - I poured it all into my mesh strainer and nothing happened. Not sure what kind of strainer the recipe means - it does say "fine," which is what mine is.) Pour filling into gingersnap crust, smoothing with a spatula. Refrigerate until set, at least 4 hours. When ready to serve, top with whipped cream and garnish with a sprinkling of nutmeg.