Hi fellow bakers … and wannnabe bakers, too.
Fall is officially here, although you couldn’t tell by the weather we’ve had the past couple ofweeks. To get us in the mood for the cooler weather that supposedly is on the way, I thought I’d share my recipe for apple pie – country apple pie, that is, with fresh cream.
This pie is a bit time-consuming to make, because you have to prepare the apples by coring, peeling and slicing them. If you have one of those handy-dandy little crank gizmos that do all three tasks for you, it is easier and even sort of fun. For the pie shell, I recommend the easy no-roll pie crust I shared a few weeks ago.
Country Apple Pie
1st Place – Orange County Fair
Jeff Péo
5 cups Granny Smith apples – sliced/peeled/cored
¾ cup sugar
4 Tbs. flour
¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp. cinnamon
1 cup heavy cream
Combine all of the ingredients and pour into pie shell.
Sprinkle top with 1 Tbs. sugar mixed with ¼ tsp. cinnamon
Bake at 400 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes.
When fresh peaches are available, substitute peaches for apples!!!
As you can see, the recipe is simple and pretty straightforward. But as I’ve written before, a pie needs to look enticingly good as well as taste good. So you have three choices of how to arrange the apple slices in the pie to make it look appealing.
The first (and simplest) is to pour the apples in the pie crust and sprinkle the sugar/cinnamon mixture over the top and throw iti n the oven. Not the best looking, but tastes great.
The second choice is to pour some of the apples in the pie crust to make sort of a base for the pie, then arrange another layer of apples in some sort of artful design, finishing with the sugar/cinnamon mixture.
The third choice is what I call a designer pie. The picture that accompanies this column is an example of this method of arranging the apples … and I apologize for the poor quality of the picture.
After pealing, coring and slicing the apples, you cut them in half (if you haven’t already) to make sort of a U-shaped apple piece. You begin on the edge of the crust, placing the apple piece so it looks like an upside down U. Continue to place the apple slices around the pie, overlapping them by about half.
If you look closely at the picture you’ll be able to see what I’m trying to describe. Continue this process until you’ve filled the pie shell with the apples, and the pie looks sort of like a flower with apple petals. Sprinkle with the sugar/cinnamon mixtureand bake.
Questions? Problems? Comments? Feel free to contact me. And I hope you enjoy your pie with the cooler weather.
Jeff
The Cookie Man
