My Apple Pie

When I started writing Blue Kale Road, part of my motivation was to compile family recipes for my boys, the recipes they are growing up with and may want to take with them. I guess it’s my way of passing down a treasure of 3x5 cards with handwritten recipes. Next year, Sam is going to college, and while he’ll be living in a dorm he may have access to a kitchen occasionally and want to make something homemade. My repertoire of favorite meals is on my mind now, simple food like meatloaf, veggie frittatas, roasted potatoes, lemon pepper chicken and glazed salmon – staples for our weeknights and dishes that in the coming months I want to include here.

Today, though, is about apple pie. While not a regular part of our weekly eating, it is a favorite for Sam and Isaac (and Bob and me!) and a collection of Mom’s recipes wouldn’t be complete without it.

As they say, many hands make light work and this was certainly true the night before Thanksgiving when my mother-in-law Mary, Sam, Isaac, Bob and I all gathered in our little kitchen together to peel and slice apples. We stayed up late chatting and laughing, while seeing who could get the longest strip of apple peel.

This year, in preparing for major pie baking, I made my pie crusts ahead of time, rolled and arranged them in pie plates. I wrapped them up and popped them in the freezer, making it easy to assemble pumpkin, sweet potato and apple pies at the last minute. Since I was baking lots of pies for the holiday, I didn’t have enough pie plates for all of them at once and used a spring form pan for the apple pie.

After tossing the apples with flour, sugar and a bit of cinnamon, I left them to macerate overnight since it was too late at night to bake the pie and I needed some sleep. In the morning, I pulled the crust from the freezer, poured the apples in and slid the pie into the oven. It couldn’t have been easier and I must say I loved the shape of the pie baked in the spring form and will continue to do it this way.

I didn’t get a chance to take photos on Thanksgiving evening since we dove into the pies with gusto, so I had to bake another one. I know, it’s tough. There’s nothing like greeting the boys after school with the heavenly scent of an apple pie just out of the oven! Is there anything more cozy and homey than apple pie? I don’t think so.

The flaky crust enveloped warm, soft apples that melted in our mouths. I enjoy apple pie as is, but a dollop of whipped cream would be welcome, too. If you want to try a creative twist on whipped cream, check out my friend Erina’s delightful curry whipped cream – it is a part of her winning dessert for Kitchen Circus, and I do think curry and apples pair nicely together.

I hope Sam and Isaac will carry many happy memories from the kitchen, and perhaps having our family recipes at their fingertips will help them along the way.

Apple Pie
Serves 8 (or 4 of you’re a teenage boy!)

2 1/2 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 pound (2 sticks) + 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, dice the 2 sticks of butter and keep well chilled
4 tablespoons ice water
10 apples (roughly 4 pounds), peeled, cored and cut into 1/16th slices (I use a combination of Golden Delicious and Granny Smith)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Cream to brush on crust
Turbinado sugar to sprinkle

Have a spring form pan or pie plate ready. To make the crust, be sure your ingredients are well chilled. Rose Levy Berenbaum even suggests putting your flour in the freezer to chill before beginning and I’ve started doing it. Also, dice your butter and keep it in the fridge until ready to use.

In the bowl of your food processor, pulse 2 1/2 cups flour with the salt a few times. Add the diced 1/2 pound (2 sticks) of butter and pulse until the butter resembles small peas. Add 3 tablespoons of ice water and pulse to see if the dough comes together. Pinch a small piece to test. If it still seems dry, add another tablespoon.

When the dough comes together, turn it out onto your lightly floured counter. Gently form the dough into a ball and cut it in half. Using a rolling pin, roll one ball of dough into a round to fit your pan (if using a spring form, the dough should come up about 1 1/2 inches on the side). Fit the dough in, cover with plastic wrap and pop it in the freezer. Roll the second ball of dough into a ring to fit the top of the pie. Place it on a small cutting board, cover with plastic wrap and pop into the freezer on top of the spring form pan. You now have crust ready to use whenever you’d like! If you will be baking your pie right away, you can place the crusts in the fridge to chill until ready to use.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the apple slices, sugar, cinnamon and remaining 2 tablespoons of flour. Toss to mix and coat the apples. Set aside to macerate for about an hour (or cover overnight).

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Pull your crusts out (if from the freezer, pull the top crust out about 20 minutes earlier to give it time to soften a bit). Pour the apples and collected juiced into the pie pan and press/arrange the apples so they fit snugly. Dot the top with the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Lay the top crust on and seal the edges. Brush a bit of cream over the top to help brown and sprinkle a little turbinado sugar on top. With a small knife, cut a few slashes in the crust as steam vent.

Place the pie on a rimmed baking sheet and pop it in the oven. Bake for about 1 hour, 20 minutes, until the apple filling is bubbling thickly and the top is browned nicely. Let cool for about half an hour to let the juices collect before serving. If desired, dollop with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. I think apple pie is best served the day it is baked, but it certainly will keep well if made a day ahead and kept loosely covered at room temperature.

Blackberry Mini Pies with Walnut-Thyme Streusel

I am a pie person.  I like cake, but I love pie.  With summer approaching, it means pie and lots of it.  This month, Abby Dodge graciously gives us Very Berry Mini Pies for the Bake Together challenge.  Thank you, Abby!  I quickly began dreaming about what kind of little pies to bake and what flavors to combine.

Occasionally, I add fresh herbs such as basil or marjoram to stone fruit and berry desserts, herbs that more typically go into savory dishes.  I don’t care for pies that are overly sugared – I want to taste the fruit.  The fresh herbs enhance the flavors of the fruit, and balance out its sweetness nicely.  For the mini pies, I chose to include thyme in the streusel since I thought it a natural pairing with the blackberries I had just picked up.

When I decided to use the blackberries fresh rather than baking them, I knew I needed a filling to anchor them on.  Soft cheeses always appeal to me, so I stirred together goat cheese, mascarpone and ricotta with some honey for a creamy, rich, not-too-sweet filling.

I have also been curious about using coconut oil in place of vegetable shortening.  I was delighted to find the combination of butter and chilled coconut oil yielded a flaky crust that easily shattered – this is a little pie to eat with a fork and not your hands! 

Just in time for summer pies, I had the pleasure of taking a pie making class last week with Shauna Ahern, where she shared her pie making skills and some helpful tips.  I learned I have been rolling pie crust dough all wrong!  She recommends thinking of your dough disc as a clock, and rolling it in 10 minute intervals clockwise around the disc.  This produces a more uniformly even thickness and doesn’t overwork the dough.  Brilliant!  My past method of rolling back and forth, back and forth, and then turning the dough to do more of the same was overworking it and usually ended up quite uneven.  Using this new technique, my pie dough was rolled out quickly and efficiently.

We happily ate all ten of these Blackberry Mini Pies on Father’s Day.  Due to the cheese filling and fresh berries, they should be eaten the same day they are made. Not a hard task with two teenagers diving in!

Blackberry Mini Pies with Walnut-Thyme Streusel

Adapted from Abby Dodge’s Very Berry Mini Pies

Makes 10 mini tarts

For the dough

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 6 slices, well chilled

2 tablespoons coconut oil, well chilled

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon very cold water

2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

For the streusel topping

1/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 cup quick cooking oats

1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

Pinch of kosher salt

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

1/4 cup walnuts, lightly toasted and chopped

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

For the filling

4 ounces soft goat cheese

8 ounces fresh ricotta cheese

4 ounces mascarpone cheese

3 tablespoons honey

Zest of 1 lemon

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

10 ounces blackberries

Place the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse briefly to combine. Add the butter and coconut oil and pulse until the butter and coconut oil are slightly larger than pea size, about 10 to 12 pulses. Drizzle the water and lemon juice evenly over the flour mixture. Pulse until the dough begins to form moist crumbs that are just beginning to clump together, about 8 or 9 more pulses depending on your machine.

Dump the moist crumbs onto a large piece of plastic wrap and gather into a pile. With the heel of you hand, push and gently smear the dough away from you until the crumbs come together (two or three ‘smears’ should do the trick – the coconut oil will be very soft so don’t overwork the dough). Shape into a 5-inch disc and wrap tightly in the plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours, or up to 2 days.

Remove the dough from the fridge and let it sit out until soft enough to roll, 10 to 20 minutes (depending on your kitchen temp and the weather). Arrange a large piece of plastic wrap or parchment on the work surface and put the dough in the center. Cover with another piece of plastic or parchment and press down on the dough to flatten. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough between the plastic or parchment to about 1/8- inch thickness.  Roll at 10 minute intervals around the disc.  Cut out 8 rounds using a 3 1/2-inch round cookie cutter or glass. Gather up the scraps, reroll to a 1/8-inch thickness, and cut another round. Reroll and cut one more round for a total of 10 rounds of dough.

Lightly butter ten regular-sized (2 3/4- 3 inch diameter) muffin cups in a muffin tin.

Working with one round at a time, use your fingers to gently press the dough into each muffin cup, making sure there are no air bubbles in the bottom and the dough is pressed firmly and evenly up the side to within 1/8 inch of the top of the cup. Repeat with the remaining dough rounds.  Pop the muffin tins into the freezer while you make the streusel.

Put the flour, oats, brown sugar, salt, thyme leaves and walnuts in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times, then add the butter.  Pulse a few more times until it is in moist clumps. Spread evenly on a baking sheet and pop in the freezer for 5 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the streusel for about 14 minutes, stirring after 7 minutes.  When it is golden brown, remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Increase the oven temperature to 375 degrees.  Remove the muffin tin from the freezer.  Cut 10 squares of foil and line each chilled crust with one, then fill with pie weights.  Blind bake the crusts for 20 minutes, remove the foil and weights and bake for 5 more minutes, until golden brown.  Remove from the oven and let cool.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the 3 cheeses with the honey, zest and salt until smooth. 

Remove the crusts from the muffin tin.  Fill each mini pie crust with just under 1/4 cup of cheese filling.  Arrange blackberries on each pie, 5-6 berries each depending upon the size of your berries.  Sprinkle the streusel on top of each thickly.  You will have some streusel leftover and it is delicious over ice cream or yogurt.  Enjoy the pies right away, or within the same day.

Apricot, Plum and Strawberry Slab Pie at Hood Canal

We are currently enjoying a marvelous visit at Hood Canal (an hour and half southwest of Seattle) with our dear friends from Australia, Chris and Cheryl, and their amazing kids Nick, Carly and Lucy. Originally from Seattle, our friends have a lovely cabin on the water and every July they come back to visit family and friends here. I can’t remember how many years our families have been gathering here... at least twelve or thirteen? Our children have grown up together visiting the canal house and every summer we can’t wait for this time together.


Our days are spent boating, water skiing, wake boarding, shooting BB guns, swimming, lounging in the sun, inner tubing, shooting baskets, paddling in the kayoo (half kayak, half canoe), reading trashy magazines and chatting about the past year. There is always so much to catch up on! Seals pop up to cautiously watch us, folks wave from their boats as they float by, and a generally lazy atmosphere takes over as the day progresses. Late afternoons involve cocktails and nibbles, and this leads into delicious dinners on the barbecue, bottles of wine and more talking and laughing. We spend evenings around the fire pit, roasting s’mores and watching the sun set over the mountains. Sometimes we watch a movie on an outdoor screen, with the canal and disappearing sun as our backdrop.


While the sun is dropping behind the mountains, we start thinking about pie and ice cream. Every year I bake a couple of pies to bring with us, and at this point I don’t think we’d be allowed down the driveway if we didn’t come bearing pies! This year we have a fun crowd at the canal with Chris and Cheryl’s extended family and an 88th birthday to be celebrated, which means lots of pie and special memories.


Knowing we have a big group for dessert, I think about the slab pies I’ve been seeing lately. These are pies baked on a rimmed baking sheet that can feed a larger crowd than one baked in a traditional pie plate. Now, what kind of pie to make? Ah, deciding this is one of summer’s joys when we can choose from peaches, cherries, plums, apricots, berries and more. My kitchen is filled with the scent of strawberries from our berry stand and plums and apricots from the farmer’s market. I see a pie forming!


Apricot, Plum and Strawberry Slab Pie
Serves 24
Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food

Crust:
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled
2/3 cups ice water

Filling:
2 pounds fresh apricots, sliced into eighths
2 pounds plums, sliced into eighths
2 pints strawberries, hulled and sliced into halves or quarters depending upon their size
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
Cream for brushing on crust

Cover the bottom and sides of a 10x15 inch rimmed baking sheet with foil. In a food processor, pulse the flour, salt and sugar together to combine. Cut one stick of butter into tablespoon sizes and add to the mix. Pulse until just incorporated. Repeat with remaining three sticks of butter. The mixture should resemble a coarse meal. With the machine running, add 2/3 cup ice water. Pulse until the dough is crumbly and holds together when squeezed. If necessary, add more ice water one tablespoon at a time. Do not overmix.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead lightly to make a smooth dough. Divide in half. On a sheet of parchment paper, roll the first ball of dough into a rectangle just larger than the baking sheet. Transfer the dough to the baking sheet by lifting and flipping the parchment paper onto the pan and peel off the paper. Press dough into the bottom and sides of the pan. Place the baking sheet in the refrigerator to chill until ready to use. On another sheet of parchment paper, roll out the second ball of dough. Place this in the refrigerator to chill (can lay on top of the baking pan).

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine the fruit, sugar and cornstarch. Let sit for 15 minutes. Remove the sheet pan from the refrigerator and spoon the fruit and juices onto the bottom crust and spread evenly. Flip the top crust onto the top and peel off the paper. Press the edges of the top and bottom crust together and crimp. Brush the top of the pie with cream and cut slits on the top of the pie to vent. Place the pan in the oven on top of two pieces of foil spread out (to catch any drips) and reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees. Bake for about 45-50 minutes, until the top is a bit golden and the juices are bubbling thickly through the steam vents. Cool for one hour before serving.

Blueberry Pie and Raspberry Chevre Tart for Pie Day!

What can I say, I love pie!  And what better way to celebrate pie than with a Pie Day!  A spontaneous thought from Shauna Ahern, the Gluten-Free Girl, turned into a virtual pie party.  In over a thousand kitchens today, pies are being baked for Pie Day.  That’s one party I don’t want to miss!

I grew up eating a lot of pie.  My mom baked pies, lots of pies.  Apple, pumpkin, chocolate cream, rhubarb custard, banana cream, blueberry …we had an incredible year-round selection.  She made crusts to perfection (as I’ve mentioned before), rolling the dough out on our kitchen table to precise measurements, always creating a light, flaky crust.  I really can’t say what my favorite kind of pie is, but after years of pie eating, I think I can finally narrow the choices to summer fruit pies.  And it’s summer now!  So let the pie baking begin.

In my opinion, blueberries are just the best berry around, with raspberries a close second.  For Pie Day, I could bake a mixed berry pie, which is always delicious, but decide instead to be a purist with the berries and highlight each one.  Which means two pies!  Taking that thought a step further, why not a sweet pie and savory tart?  You never know what will emerge when you start thinking this way …

I played around with my blueberry pie filling I’ve made over the years by increasing the blueberries and adding some blueberry jam to enhance the blueberry flavor.  A slice of this pie made the 4^th of  July complete!

Blueberry Pie

Serves 8

Adapted from The Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer and Ethan Becker

Crust

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 pieces

1/2 cup ice cold water

In a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar and salt together a few times.  Add the cold butter pieces and pulse only until it looks like coarse meal.  Gradually add the 1/2 cup of water, stopping to scrape sides if needed.   Pulse until the dough just comes together (don’t let it form a ball because this will overwork the dough).  If the dough is dry and won’t stick when a piece is pinched together, add a little more cold water a tablespoon at a time.

Lightly dust a surface with flour and put the dough on it.  Roll into a ball and cut in half.  Roll out one piece of dough to about a 13 inch round.  Gently roll up the dough onto the rolling pin and unroll into your pie plate.  Press the dough into the bottom and sides of the pan and refrigerate until ready to use.  Roll out the second ball of dough into a 13 inch round.  Lay it on a parchment lined baking sheet and refrigerate.

Filling

6 cups fresh blueberries

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup blueberry jam

4 tablespoons cornstarch

Juice of 1 lemon

Pinch of kosher salt

Milk for brushing

Turbinado sugar for sprinkling

Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream for serving.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Combine the blueberries, sugar, jam, cornstarch, lemon juice and salt in a mixing bowl. 

Pour the mixture into the bottom crust.  Brush the overhanging edge with cold water.  Place the flat piece of dough on top, seal the edges together and crimp or flute.  Cut a small hole in the middle of the pie to vent.  Brush the top of the pie with a little milk and sprinkle on some turbinado sugar.

Bake the pie on a baking sheet for 25 minutes.  Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake until the thick juices bubble through the center vent, about 25-30 minutes more.  Let the pie cool before serving.   Dollop slices with ice cream or whipped cream and enjoy!

I always enjoy fruit on a cheese plate.   In general, I’m not a big fan of grapes, though (surprising since I love wine, and Bob is just the opposite in that he loves grapes and not wine …but I digress).  Depending upon what cheeses are being served, I prefer berries, sliced apples or pears, or sliced stone fruit.  Since I want to spotlight raspberries and I think berries and chevre are a lovely combination on a cheese platter, I set out to bake a savory tart using both.  Sort of like a cheese plate in a crust (the cracker?).  Serve this tart to jazz up a cheese course or as a light lunch with a simple green salad.

Raspberry Chevre Tart with Poppyseed Shortcrust

Serves 8-10

Crust

3 ounces whole wheat flour

3 ounces all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon poppyseeds

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

4 ounces cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 egg, lightly beaten

In a food processor, pulse the flours, poppyseeds and salt together.  Add the butter and pulse until a course meal forms.  Add the egg and pulse to combine.  

Pour the crust mixture into a tart pan with removable bottom.  Using your fingers, lightly press the mixture into the sides and bottom of the pan.  Do this quickly, otherwise the crust will begin to stick to your fingers.  If needed, use a piece of wax paper to press.  Refrigerate the crust for about 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Place a piece of parchment paper on the bottom of the crust and layer with pie weights or dry beans.  Bake for 15 minutes, remove the paper and weights or beans, and continue baking for another 10 minutes until slightly golden.  Cool crust completely.

Filling

8 ounces soft chevre

8 ounces fresh ricotta

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 tablespoons honey, divided

1/2 tablespoon flaky sea salt

A few grinds of fresh black pepper or grains of paradise

16 ounces fresh raspberries

Mix the cheeses, olive oil, 1 tablespoon honey, salt and pepper until well blended.  Spoon the mixture into the cooled crust and smooth.  Place the raspberries in concentric circles on top of the cheese mixture until surface is covered.  Refrigerate for 1 hour and up to 6 hours. 

Before serving, drizzle the remaining 2 tablespoons of honey on top of the raspberries.  Cut into slices and enjoy with a chilled glass of sauvignon blanc.  Cheers!