Three times a charm

Winner for 5 DECEMBER 2011 - Eirwen due to Lesley being a lovely sweetheart. Next draw will now be in January.
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Pie 3.

We’re getting there – Pie 3 – the crust is great.  2 tablespoons of vegetable shortening and a whole cup of sour cream.

Flaky, yes?  Yes. Happy!

Except I used Jazz apples – which stayed rather too crisp – and I didn’t put the flour in the apple mixture, so it was a bit too liquidy. 

So, lessons?

1) I like cox apples.  An hour in the oven at 200 and they are the perfect softness.
2) Flour in the mixture!
3) Cold cold cold cold!

So the recipe:

Pastry:
2 cups of flour
250 grams of butter (one block)
1/2 teaspoon salt
250ml sour cream

To make – cube the butter, and chill it. Mix flour with salt, chill it in a bowl in fridge.  When nice and cold, toss flour mixture with cubes.  Chill some more.  *Dump out on counter, use rolling pin and flatten mixture. Scrape together in a heap, roll out again.  Dump back into bowl and back into fridge.  Chill.  Repeat from * 2 more times, or until you have a mixture that looks like flakes of paint that have fallen off a wall.  If you want to add shortening, add a couple tablespoons on the second or third time rolling out. You can replace half the butter with 100grams shortening if you want.

Once it’s all chilled, add the sour cream and fold into the mixture.  Keep it all nice and cold.  When it just comes together as a ball, wrap it up and stick in the fridge for 30mins to overnight.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
Apple filling:
4 pounds cox apples, peeled, cored and quartered then halved.
1 tsp cinnamon
(optional, pinch of all spice, pinch of nutmeg)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 egg beaten
tablespoon demerara sugar

Toss apples, spices, 1/2 cup sugar and flour together.

Take half of dough, and shape into a ball, flatten it into a circular patty.  Start to roll out on well floured surface, rolling from centre out.  Keep turning dough a quarter of a turn to keep the rolling even.  Work fast so the dough stays cold.  Roll out to approx 1/8 inch thick.  Fold into quarters and pick up or roll onto your rolling pin, and place carefully into pie pan.  Be careful not to stretch the dough!  Chill in fridge while you roll out the top.

Put apples into pan, pick up top crust and place carefully onto pie.  Crimp the edges closed, and brush with beaten egg. Cut 4 or 5 air vents in the centre of the pie. Sprinkle with demererara sugar.

Pop in oven for an hour. Check after 15 minutes – cover with foil to keep the top from getting too brown.  The juices should be bubbling through the air vents and the top nicely browned.

Tomorrow an entire day of baking – white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and pecan bars. And some nian gau and mantou with our new bamaboo steamers!

Tagged as: baking, Cooking, pie