Apple Strudel Pie

My father loves apple strudel and I really wanted to make it for him. But I believe part of being a good hostess is not taking on too much, so you are not crazy, grumpy woman. With all the cooking I was doing, I could not deal with strudel dough (I would have used filo but still more then I wanted to deal with) on top of everything else. So I was brainstorming how I could make something that had all the element of an apple strudel but user friendly. I decided a pie because I could do the crust a week early and put it in the freezer. I also did the topping in the morning. So all I had to do is make the filling add the topping and bake it off with a frozen crust.

Strudel usually has an apple filling with current soaked in rum and lemon peel, as apposed to a cinnamon/brown sugar filling of a traditional apple pie. Also between the dough layers they sprinkle buttered bread crumbs. So I just made a bread crumb topping and filling like you would find in strudel. I have to say it was very good and my father was in heaven. I hope you like it. I would love feedback (good and bad).

PS, do you like my Keep Calm and Bake On sign. I love these and was playing around with a saying that was me. I think this is it xoxoxo

PSS, I wrote a post on Heartfelt Thoughts, about Conviction Verses Shame. I would love to hear what you have to say on the subject !!!

Apple Strudel Pie

1 uncooked pie crust, cold or frozen

Filling:

1/4 cup dried currants (or golden raisins) soaked for 1/2 hour in 1/4 cup of heated rum

6 apples, cored and sliced

3 TBL melted butter

3 TBL flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. salt

rum form the currants

grated lemon peel from one lemon

Topping:

1 1/2 cup bread crumbs, I use panko

1/2 cup melted butter

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped *

Heat up rum in sauce pan, do not boil. Pour over currants in a bowl and cover with a plate. Toast walnuts if you have not.

Pre-heat oven 350

For filling toss all ingredients together and fill pie crust. For topping melt butter and mix with the rest of ingredients. Sprinkle over the top of pie. Bake 40-50 minutes, till crust is golden brown.

 

*Toasting walnuts, set walnuts in a baking dish. Put into a re-heated 350 oven. Bake 4-6 minutes, till golden brown. Watch them, they can go from untoasted to burnt really quick. I can tell they are ready because I can smell they are getting that nice toasty smell.

 

 

 

 

 

Brown Sugar Pie, Sort Of

 

Hello everyone, well I am still here, but having guest for 10 days is just way tooo long. I am sort of in a coma and my house is falling down around me. I will say Leavenworth was so beautiful (which I have no pictures of, because my battery died and I forgot to pack the extra one)

I did want to share a very yummy pie I made, perfect for fall. Brown sugar pie, well sort of. I cook with rapadura instead of brown sugar but I felt it was too intense to use alone in this recipe. So I used half rapadura and half sugar (evaporated cane) and some molasses. I thought it gave it a bit more intensity then just brown sugar but not too overpowering. It was very rich and I loved it with just some raw apple slices on the side. Even if you do not cook with rapadura, I encourage you to try using half brown sugar and half sugar with some molasses. I think you will enjoy and find the flavor more complex. I will be back when I can get off the couch and find my living room again  :-o xoxo

Brown Sugar Pie, Sort Of

1 pie crust, unbaked

1/2 cup rapadura or brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar or evaporated cane

2 TBL. molasses

1 egg

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 TBL dark rum

2 TBL milk

2 TBL. flour, whole wheat pastry

2 TBL melted butter, cooled

Pre-heat oven 350 degrees.

Whisk all ingredients together (but not the pie crust !!!) in a bowl, pour into pie crust and bake 35-45 minutes. Till crust is lightly browned and filling set. Allow to cool and enjoy !!!

 

Hand Jam-pies

 

A favorite tea treat is make your own jam hand-pies. I like to serve items where you can make it to please your own palette.

I roll out pate brisee and cut tops and bottoms.

Set out different jams, bits of chocolate, nuts, fruit, anything you can think of. Each person takes a piece of dough and places a TBL of jam and a few pieces of fruit, chocolate, nuts in the center.

Wet edge of dough with water, using your fingers. Set another piece of dough on top and press down edges. We carved our initial into each pie, so we knew who's was who. 

Set hand-pies on parchment paper. I suggest you set cookie sheet in freezer for 1/2 hour to re-harden butter. Bake off frozen hand-pies at 375°F  for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 10 minutes, that jam is really hot. Enjoy!!!

Note, I made mine with my red-wine plum jam and bits of dark chocolate, ahhh.

 

I am taking a few days off from blogging to spoil my man for Fathers day. I always thought the more I spoil him, the more he will spoil me :-) Plus we just had our 21 wedding anniversary. We were up half the night chatting, giggling and remembering. I can not think of a better way to celebrate, I am quite blessed xox

Raspberry Galette

        

We have moved on from strawberry heaven (I have 70 pounds in my freezer) to raspberry heaven. I am busy putting raspberries into lots of things. This raspberry galette was a big hit. It is sooooooo easy to make.  But there is just a few things I want to say about the recipe. Of course!!! I am so sorry my recipes posts are always so long but there is a lot I want to say about the recipes. I really want you readers to understand what I am doing and why. I get a lot of questions about recipes and the thing I see over and over again is that people do not understand what they are doing. It is sort of like math. You can do the equation but you do not get why or what you are doing. I think if everyone understood cooking better they would feel more confident.

So first of all a galette is a French term for a cake or tart, often filled. What I made is also called a free-form tart because I just slap a piece of dough on the parchment paper, filled it with filling and pull up the sides. It is not precise or perfect, as you can see with mine.

It is usually made with a pie crust but mine is made with puff-pastry. And there is a good reason why. Puff-pastry cooks faster and that is important in this recipe because we are using fresh raspberries. You do not want these raspberries to cook long. You do want them to cook but still mainten some shape. So puff-pastry is perfect for berries or fruit that really does not need a long time cooking. Like peaches and plums.

The other thing is use only fresh berries, not frozen. The fresh berries extract a bit of juice but frozen ones, would extract a LOT and this crust can not hold a lot of juice. It would be running all over the place. so no frozen.   

 

1: Roll out a defrosted sheet of puff-pastry to size you want. Do not worry about the shape. Put pastry on a sheet of parchment paper (it will make life so much easier to get the pastry of the sheet after you bake it). Set in the center enough fresh berries but keep a good 2 inches around side clear. I use about 2 pints here.

 

2: Just fold edge over berries and sprinkle with sugar. I also sprinkled the bottom of the crust with sugar before I set the berries on it. Put galette on a cookie sheet or flat pan and set in fridge for 1/2 hour to let the dough rehard. Then it will puff better. While galette is in fridge Pre-heat oven.

 

3: Bake as package directs. Mine was 400 for 20 minutes. Pull out and cool. Serve with a generous dollop of homemade whipped cream and more fresh berries. I really like having the contrast of the cooked berries and the fresh berries with the yummy whipped cream (with a dash of cassis in the cream. Framboise would also be good but I did not have any) sandwhiched in between the berries. Some grated chocolate over the top when it first came out of the oven would be lovely too !!!