I know, I know, late again with the post but this time it is not my fault, I swear. Telus had issues yesterday afternoon and, gasp, I had no internet! It was almost like the old days when we talked to each other and interacted without constant beeps and I just need to take this’. Down off of your soap box Barb!
New apples, is there anything better? The Okanagan region Of BC is a really fabulous growing region and the produce is even better if you can buy it at the farm gate or market. DSIL2 was out to that area last weekend and brought me some lovely Honey Crisp apples which I promptly made into pie. Is there anything better than new apples? Yes, new apples baked in pastry of course!
I made a pie for the freezer, one for the bringer of the apples, and six open top apple tarts. I started with my favourite pastry recipe which is lard based but any one of the excellent pie recipes out there will do. I like to make the filling first so that the pastry is fresh to roll out. None of this chilling before rolling for me, such a rebel!
I peeled and cored the apples (I used eight because they were giant, probably equal to about a dozen apples) and cut them into quarters. I sliced the quarters crosswise for the pies and for the tarts, I cut the quarters in half and sliced those crosswise. The apples, as I said, were huge so the slices were too big for the tarts.
After the apples are all sliced up into a large bowl, in a separate small bowl, I mixed half a cup of sugar and a third cup of flour along with a teaspoon of cinnamon. I like to use a fork to mix these together so that there are no lumps. The flour thickens the juice that the apples give off when cooked and the sugar holds the flour particles apart so that there are no lumps in the thickened juice. The cinnamon speaks for itself. I sprinkled this mixture over the apple slices and tossed them gently to coat them.
I made pastry using that favourite recipe and rolled out the bottom crust. I filled the pan with the crust with the apple slices, heaped them up, rolled out an upper crust and covered the apples. I crimped the edges and trimmed off the excess pastry. I baked the pies on a foil lined baking sheet to catch any spilled over juice at 400F for 15 minutes, then 375F for another 45 minutes to an hour. The pies are done when the crust is browned and the juice that bubbles out looks thickened.
I made my tarts with a single crust in some extra-large muffin tins and just filled the crust with apples to the top. The apples cooked down a little but still looked and tasted great.
Enjoy the fall fruits while you can and have a wonderful week. Back to crafting next time but in the meantime, don’t forget the vanilla ice cream to top your pie!
I’m drooling.