When Swathi asked me for a suggestion for this month's Baking Partner's challenge, the first dish that came to my mind was Apple Pie. For so many days I have been planning to make this pie but keep on postponing it due to laziness. But when a recipe is given for a challenge, I usually try to complete it before the reveal date. So I selected a recipe for apple pie from taste.com and Swathi accepted it. There are also two more pie recipes to be tried out for this challenge. But I chose to do this pie. I read in many blogs that Granny Smith's apples are best for pies. But when I saw the price of those apples in Nilgiris, I thought the apples which we get usually will do. The baked pie smelled very nice and my house was filled with the aroma of cinnamon. I added the syrup I used to cook the apples in the pie. So the bottom was soft while the top was crispy. If you want the bottom part of the pie crust to be crisp, then avoid adding the syrup. The pie was so delicious and we had a nice time tasting it.
Ingredients:
For The Crust:
All Purpose Flour/ Maida-2 1/4 cups
Baking Powder-1 tsp
Baking Soda-1 tsp
Cold Unsalted Butter-3/4 + 1/8 cup
Caster Sugar-1/3 cup
Cold water-For Kneading
For The Filling:
Apples- 7-8 nos or 1 Kilogram
Butter-1/4 cup
Caster Sugar-1/2 cup
Cinnamon-1 tsp
Milk-For Brushing
Granulated Dark Brown Sugar- For Sprinkling
Procedure:
For The Crust:
1. Cut the cold butter into cubes.
2. In a bowl mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and sugar.
3. Add the cubed butter and rub with your palms to incorporate the butter into the flour.
4. Take the flour butter mixture in your hands and lift it up the bowl and rub. This way you get air inside the mixture and the crust will be flaky.
5. Leave some pea sized chunks of butter while rubbing.
6. Add cold water and bring the dough together. Let the dough be crumbly and not smooth.
7. Divide it into two parts with one portion larger than the other.
8. Place them into cling wraps, cover and refrigerate until firm.
For The Filling:
2. In a large pan add butter and sugar. Heat it. When butter and sugar melts, add the apples and cinnamon and mix well.
3. Cook on medium flame for 5-10 minutes until the apples are soft.
4. Remove from flame and allow it to cool.
Assembling The Pie:
1. Use a 8" deep pie crust. As I didn't have a large pie dish I made two pies one was with a 7" pan and the other was a small pie measuring 5".
2. Grease the pie dishes.
4. If the dough becomes soft, refrigerate for 5 minutes and continue the lining.
5. Once lined, fill the dish with the prepared filling.
6. Pour the sauce on top of the apples. (If you want a crispy bottom then skip the sauce. You can use the sauce as a topping for ice creams or pancakes.)
7. roll out the other piece of dough and place it on the apples.
8. Seal the edges. Brush the top with milk and sprinkle dark brown sugar.
9. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
10. Preheat oven to 180C.
11. Bake the pie for 45 minutes if using a large pie dish and for 30 minutes if using a smaller one.
12. When the top is nicely browned, remove pie from oven and allow it to coo.
13. Place the pie along with the dish on a inverted tumbler and loosen the outer ring.
14. Bring the outer rim to the bottom. With a flat spatula remove the pie from the base plate and transfer to a serving plate.
15. Slice it and serve.
Cut butter into cubes and add it to flour mixture.
Rub it with palms until the butter is broken down to pea sized pieces.
Add enough water to make a crumbly dough.
Divide into two and cover with cling wrap and refrigerate.
Prepare filling and allow it to cool.
Pour the syrup on the filling.
Roll another disc with the dough and cover the filling with the disc. Trim the edges and press to seal.
Brush the top with milk and sprinkle brown sugar on top.
Insert a knife on the top to make vents for steam to escape during baking.
Bake until nicely browned.
Slice it up.
The inside was so beautiful. The crust was crispy and the apples were soft.
When hot the syrup oozes out but when the pie comes to room temperature, the crust absorbs all the syrup and the slice becomes firm.
The smaller pie I made with the excess crust and filling.
Labels: APPLE, BAKES, BAKING PARTNERS, EGGLESS, PIE, SWEETS
