And Then We Made Pies

Yesterday I decided to finalize my monthly budget spreadsheet for September. When all was said and done, we did end up with a net gain, but we wouldn't have if I hadn't gotten a paycheck for the freelance work I did all summer.

The obvious conclusion: I need more work.

Unfortunately, the solution was not quite as obvious.  I love the whole freelance thing, but it can be so unpredictable.  You never know when you might get work.

So, I decided to maximize my chances of getting work by applying for more work.  I also planned to reach out and contact various people from my old work.  And that woman I emailed before about freelance?  I would email her again!  I would stick my neck out, dammit!

Instead, I spent yesterday afternoon making pies.

They're apple, made from the apples we picked last week.  

The crust recipe I use is Never Fail Pie Crust from Allrecipes.  It's very flaky, although too crumbly to use for fancy tricks like a lattice top.  I find the crusts that are the best-tasting are often the hardest to manipulate.  But I'll take a good-tasting pie over a good-looking one any day.  It's as Frank Lloyd Wright said, "Form follows function." 

Sometimes I fill my pie with raw apples, as in this recipe.  But America's Test Kitchen advocates using pre-cooked apples, because raw apples will shrink down when cooked, resulting in a giant gap between the crust and the apples.  According to America's Test Kitchen, a gap between the crust and apples is like the worst thing that could happen to you, ever.

Now I personally think that anytime you mix crust, apples, cinnamon, and sugar, it's going to be delicious, gaps or no gaps.  But I do find it easier to apply the top crust when the apples are cooked, because raw apples are hard and pokey and tend to create breaks in the top crust. 

The filling recipe I use when making cooked filling is from America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book.  I scoured the Internet for a full three minutes and couldn't find the recipe online, and rather than wasting any more time looking further, I just figured it would be easier to type it out myself.

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Blue-Ribbon Apple Pie Filling

2 ½ pounds (5 to 7) firm, tart apples, peeled, cored, and sliced ¼ inch thick

2 ½ pounds (5 to 7) firm sweet apples, peeled, cored, and sliced ¼ thick

½ cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

¼ cup packed light brown sugar

½ teaspoon grated fresh lemon zest

¼ teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1 egg white, beaten lightly

1.      Toss the apples, ½ cup of the granulated sugar, brown sugar, zest, salt, and cinnamon together in a large bowl.  Transfer the apples to a Dutch oven, cover, and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the apples are tender when poked with a fork but still hold their shape, 15 to 20 minutes.  Transfer the apples and their juice to a rimmed baking sheet and let cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.    

2.      Adjust your oven rack to the lowest position, place a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet in the oven, and preheat to 425 degrees.

3.       Roll out a bottom crust for the pie and put it in the bottom of a pie plate, with about an inch of extra dough hanging over the edge.

4.      Drain the cooled apples thoroughly through a colander, reserving ¼ cup of the juice.  Stir the lemon juice into the reserved ¼ cup of apple juice.  

5.      Spread the apples into the dough-lined pie plate, mounding them slightly in the middle, and drizzle with the lemon juice mixture.  Cover apples with rolled-out top crust, then trim, fold, and crimp the edges.  Cut 4 vent holes into the top.  Brush the crust with the egg white and sprinkle with the remaining one tablespoon sugar.  

6.       Place pie on the heated baking sheet and bake until the crust is golden, about 25 minutes.  Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees, rotate the baking sheet, and continue to bake until the juices are bubbling and the crust is deep golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes longer.  Let the pie cool on a wire rack until the filling has set, about 2 hours. 

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My notes:

• I assume that if you don't have a Dutch oven, a regular pot is fine.
• My method for crust placement, which comes courtesy of my mother-in-law, is as follows: Sprinkle your work surface with water, using the water to stick down a piece of wax paper.  Sprinkle flour on the wax paper, dough, and rolling pin.  Roll out crust and trim, if necessary.  Then lift up the wax paper to transfer the crust into your pan.  Press dough down and peel off wax paper. 
• Although the recipe says to sprinkle the top with 1 tablespoon of sugar, I always sprinkle apple pie with a cinnamon/sugar mixture.  
• If you want to use America's Test Kitchen's Foolproof Pie Dough, it's here.  Intriguingly, it uses vodka in place of some of the water, because vodka evaporates while cooking, leaving a flakier crust.    

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Yesterday was the perfect afternoon for making apple pies.  It was cold and rainy, but I still had the windows open to hear the rain.  Nathan helped me dump in the ingredients, and he also pressed dough into a small pan to make a personal pie for himself.  

Now, you might be thinking, Shannon, but aren't you on Weight Watchers?  Yes, yes I am, astute (albeit nagging) reader.  But don't worry, I gave the pies away to Carolyn and Sarah.  Here's a cool Instagram photo Carolyn took of the pie with a slice cut out:

As you can see, the advantage of using a pre-cooked filling is that you can pack a lot more apples into a pie.  I used about twice as many apples as I would have used if I had been using raw apples. 

Happy Baking!  Happy Fall!