Thrown Together Apple Pie

I have made (another) commitment to myself to blog 3 times per week.  Okay, the other times I may have made other frequency promises, but the point is, I’ve never stuck to them. I’m not sure making these promises is such a great idea, but blogging is something I want to do regularly, and I don’t know how else to keep trying to get there. 

I was very touched by how many people gave me sympathy for my post about sleeping issues.  Some of you have similar problems, some of you have no trouble sleeping, but you all see it as a big drag.  And it is.  The good news is, touch wood, I’ve had several decent nights in a row. That’s all, no predictions, because that’s just a fool’s paradise. When I think about how much worse it could be, I find it easier to accept my insomnia as part of my life.  My dear friend and fellow blogger, Lauren DeRoller, whose blog you should definitely follow, says that a couple times a year she’ll go six nights without sleep in a row.  I think I would die, I mean, isn’t that lethal?  Luckily, (knock wood times infinity) my insomnia isn’t even close to that.  

Since I don’t really have a topic today, I thought I might as well share a dessert recipe I adapted yesterday.  I was making a French apple tart, which you can find here, to take to my book club meeting last night, but I had some leftover dough, so i made a second pie to leave at home for Dave. I was too lazy to do exactly the same, fussy process that the original (also delicious) recipe entails, so I modified it.  Here’s the recipe I came up with. 

Sweet Dough: (Enough to make an 8 or 9 inch pie) This is the recipe from The Joy of Baking website, but you can use any crust, really.

1 1/2 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 egg at room temperature (ask me how I know you should really make sure these ingredients are at room temperature!)

Put the butter in your stand mixer (or use a hand mixer, your choice) and beat it with the paddle attachment until softened.  Add the sugar gradually, beating until light and fluffy.  Then gradually incorporate the egg, but don’t over mix it.  (Don’t be alarmed if the mixture separates, that’s what happened to me and I just added the flour and it was all okay.) Then add the flour all at once, mixing just until it starts holding together.  

Shape the dough into a flat disc and chill in the fridge for one hour.  

Roll the disc of dough out on a lightly floured surface to about an inch bigger in circumference than your pan.  I used an 8 inch springform pan, but you should use a pie plate, whatever.  As you roll from the middle out to the edges, frequently turn the dough so it doesn’t get stuck to the surface. (My disc was very hard, so I had to handle it with my hands for awhile before I could get it to respond to the rolling pin.  Maybe I left it in the fridge too long.) Once the dough is big enough, roll it up onto your rolling pan and then carefully unroll it onto your pan.  Press the pie dough into the bottom of the pan and up the sides.  Chill the dough in the fridge for another twenty minutes, while you get the filling ready.  Also, preheat the oven to 425F

(If you have any dough left, you can do what my Mom always did with extra dough: roll it out into irregular shapes and sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on them, then put them in the oven on a pan with the pie. Keep your eye on those, they overcook quickly! Then let your kids have these delicious morsels while they’re dying for pie but they have to wait.)

Filling:

2 large apples (I used Honey Crisp, but any firm apple that won’t get too mushy when cooked would be good.  Granny Smith are supposed to be wonderful for cooking but they don’t seem to be grown locally so I chose Honey Crisp)  Peeled, cored and cut into 1/4 inch slices. 

1 Tbsp butter

2-4 Tbsps of sugar, depending on the sweetness of your apples and your taste

Cinnamon to taste 

Heat the butter in a pan until melted, then add the sugar and cinnamon and mix that around.  Throw in the apple slices and sauté until slightly softened, about 3-5 minutes.  Let cool slightly.

Arrange the apple slices in concentric circles decoratively, adding layers as necessary until you use up all the apples.  

Put the pie in the oven for ten minutes, then turn the heat down to 350F and bake for another 30 minutes, or until the apples are done.  

I had some apple jelly that was for the first pie recipe, which I melted and brushed over the top once the pie was baked, but that’s optional.  

This pie is super easy and really tasty. I thought it was just as good as the other one, which I slaved over all day.  By the way, when you make a sweet crust like this, it’s more forgiving.  You can handle it with your hands and fix any holes that develop as your rolling.  Plus, you don’t have to make a top crust with this version.  You could also use any regular crust recipe, but then you might have to add a bit more sugar to the filling.  Serve this with vanilla ice cream, of course! 

I hope you try this, I feel like I invented something!  I had a lot of fun doing it, too.  I’m not sure I would have gone to the trouble of making the French Apple Tart, let alone making a second pie, if I weren’t retired.  I have time to use most of a day on one (or two) recipes! What bliss!

Bon appetit!