Taffy Apple Pie

It's that time of year again.  Apples are cheap and Affy Tapples are filling displays at supermarkets.  As I was walking by a display last weekend, I thought that I can make that into a pie.

Ingredients:
6 large Granny Smith apples
1 lemon
1 cup  + 2 tablespoons of sugar
1/4 cup of water
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup of cream
1/3 cup of brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of King Arthur Flour's Pie Filling Enhancer
1 cup of chopped peanuts

Directions:
Peel, core and finely slice the apples
Juice the lemon and toss the apples in the lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of sugar.
Add the cup of sugar and the water to a saucepan on medium-high heat.
When the sugar dissolves at the butter.
When the caramel turns coppery, remove from heat.
Immediately add the cream to the caramel while stirring.  Be careful, it will bubble and sputter.
Allow to cool while you finish preparing the apples.
Stir together the brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and Pie Filling Enhancer.
Add this mixture and the chopped peanuts to the apples and toss to cover the apples.
Pour the apple mixture into a bottom crust.
Pour the caramel over the apples.
Cover with a top crust and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Do a milk wash on the top crust and sprinkle with sugar.
Bake at 400oF for 25 minutes.
Reduce the heat to 375oF and continue baking for 30 minutes.
Allow to cool entirely on a wire rack.

I used flour instead of Pie Filling Enhancer and the filling didn't turn out quite right.  Using Pie Filling Enhancer instead of flour will fix that problem.

This pie is delicious!  It tastes exactly like an Affy Tapple.  If eating caramel apples covered in peanuts is your idea of fall, you have found your new favorite pie.  This pie is fun (definitely not as pretentious as a Salted Caramel Apple Pie) and is guaranteed to make you smile.  I'm no orthodontist, but I also think this should also be safe for people with braces.

Piece out!
Justin

Sour Cream Cranberry Pie

I have seen a lot recipes for Sour Cream Raisin pies.  I wanted to try a fall twist on this, and used dried cranberries instead of raisins.  I turned to the recipe in The Four & Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book, since other recipes that I looked had twice the amount of sour cream.  While the filling was cooling, I panicked that it would not fully set, so I added a tablespoon of King Arthur Flour's Signature Secrets as insurance.

I also skipped the whipped topping, and used the two egg whites that are left over to make a meringue.  I added 1/4 cup of powdered sugar and a 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar and beat it into stiff stiff peaks, then spooned it over the filling and baked it at 325oF for 15 minutes.

This pie turned out fantastic.  It is very rich and is definitely an 8 slice pie, not a 6 slice pie.  It definitely captures the fall flavors I was trying to get.  I would definitely do more meringue if I had more egg whites laying around from another recipe, but a two-egg meringue works fine.

This would be a great pie for Thanksgiving, if you are looking to provide more options than pumpkin, apple, and pecan.

Piece out!
Justin

Classic Blueberry Pie

I used Rick Johnson's recipe from the American Pie Council's America's Best Pies.  However, instead of 8 cups of frozen blueberries, I used 6 half pints of fresh blueberries.  I also did a plaid lattice instead of a vented top crust.  I also did a milk wash and sprinkled it with sugar before baking.

This pie must have been good.  I brought it to a potluck and I didn't even have time to take a picture of a slice before it was gone.  I did notice, however, that the filling was very firm and did not slump at all.

Piece out!
Justin

Lime Custard Pie

This pie was another take on the Grapefruit Custard Pie.  It is much lighter than a Key Lime Pie and more refreshing than rich.  I followed the recipe in The Four & Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book for the Grapefruit custard pie, but substituted lime juice for the grapfruit juice and yellow Chartreuse for the Campari.  The herbal quality of the Chartreuse adds a little intrigue, but doesn't overpower the lime flavor that you would want from this pie.

This is definitely a the perfect pie to enjoy on a hot summer day.  Throw a picnic, invite me, and I'll bring one.

Piece out!
Justin

Paprika Peach Pie

After the Peaches & Cream Pie fail, I decided I needed to continue trying instead of hanging up my apron.  Two pages earlier in the same cookbook was a Paprika Peach Pie.  In reading the recipe, it looked to be a novelty pie.  Like you would enjoy a piece of it, but wouldn't be all "that's an amazing peach pie."  So I decided to add a little sweet paprika to a regular peach pie recipe to add a little depth of flavor, but still keep the essence of a classic peach pie.

Ingredients:
5 peaches
1 cup of sugar
3 tablespoons of King Arthur Flour's Signature Secrets
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons of sweet paprika

Directions:
Score an X at the bottom of the peaches.  Put them in boiling water for one minute.  Remove from boiling water and place them in ice water.  The skin should slide right off with the scraping of the back of a knife.
Cut the peach into eighths, remove the pit, and cut each eighth into three smaller pieces.
Place peaches into a medium saucepan and add the other ingredients.  The peaches will release their juices.  Once the juices come to a boil, allow it to simmer for two minutes.
Pour the filling into a pie crust, cover with another crust (I used cutouts, but you could also just cut vents).  Crimp the edges.  Do a milk wash and sprinkle with sugar.
Bake for 10 minutes at 425oF, then reduce the heat to 375oF and bake for another 35 minutes.

My plan worked.  It still tastes like a peach pie, but it does have a little something that makes you go "(h)mmmm."  I only used 2 tablespoons of Signature Secrets and the filling didn't entirely come together, so in the recipe I added one more and that should fix the problem.  I think if I play with this recipe a little bit more, I should be able to make it a winner (even if it is a guaranteed third place).

Piece out!
Justin

Peaches & Cream Pie

With only two entries for peach pie at the Illinois State Fair this year, I figured I should start making peach pies to find a good one to enter next year.  I'd be guaranteed at least third place, right?

I decided to try Four & Twenty Blackbirds' Peaches & Cream Pie with a double crust (peach pies must have a double crust for the state fair).  This was a terrible idea.

Out of the oven, the pie looked beautiful.  However, the recipe warns against over cooking as the custard will separate.  It did.  It got clumpy and gritty.  The taste was still amazing, but the texture was rather off-putting.

Back to the cutting board...

Piece out!
Justin