Showing posts with label Pies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pies. Show all posts
I am going to my sister's for supper tonight for cabbage rolls. She is making them from scratch. We have both been craving them. I am really looking forward to them myself! Homemade Cabbage Rolls are the best!
I said that I would bring dessert. I never like to go anyplace to eat empty handed. Desserts are always welcome and to be honest, I think they take a bit of stress off of the hostess.
We all enjoy apple pie and this is the height of apple season. The shops are filled with an abundance of different varieties. I love the smell in the produce aisle at this time of year.
Heck I love the smell outdoors this time of year, it is all drying leaves, and ripe apples, and pumpkin . . . . soon to be burnt pumpkin!
The recipe I am sharing was one from the cookbook entitled The Complete Book of Baking by Pillsbury. I had originally gotten this book back in the mid 1990's.
We were living in Meaford, Ontario at the time. There was a book shop at the edge of town that dealt in lots of books, mostly out of print, etc. You could get books for a really reasonable price.
I picked this one up and it was destined to become one of my favorite ones. I was unable to take it with me when I moved over to the UK, so when I was there I procured another copy.
Yes, I did like the book that much! Of course I was unable to bring it back with me when I returned to Canada last year. Thankfully my father still had my old copy and he wanted to give it back to me. (He doesn't cook at all these days.) I happily accepted his offer.
It is filled with a multitude of baking recipes. Everything from the very basics to the more elaborate. If you are looking for a good every day baking book, I highly recommend it.
There are eight different apple pie recipes in it, each one sounding more delicious than the last. This is one of them. Apple Cobblestone Pie.
A delicious single crust apple pie, filled with quartered apples and topped with a crisp, sweet and buttery coconut streusel topping. What's not to love about that!
WHAT ARE THE BEST APPLES FOR BAKING WITH
Not all apples are created equal. Some are great for eating out of hand, but not so good for baking. Some are good for baking, but not so good for eating out of hand.
Apple varieties good for baking and cooking have a tart flavor and firm texture. In North America for successful results choose Jonathan, McIntosh, Winesap, Granny Smith, Rhode Island Greening, Rome Beauty, or Northern Spy varieties.
In the UK, Bramley apples are top of the list, followed by Granny Smith, Braeburn, Cortland, Pippins, and Blenheim Orange.
One pound of apples s the equivalent of 3 medium apples and will yield 3 cups of slices apples.
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO MAKE APPLE COBBLESTONE PIE
Simple wholesome ingredients, except for the sugar that is.
- one 9-inch unbaked deep pie crust
- 6 to 10 medium apples
- granulated sugar
- all purpose flour (plain flour)
- ground cinnamon
- ground nutmeg
- lemon juice
- coconut
- butter
If you are looking for a good pastry recipe, I highly recommend my butter and lard pastry. You can find the recipe for that here. You will need to scroll down the page a bit.
HOW TO MAKE THE FILLING FOR APPLE COBBLESTONE PIE
This has to be one of the simpler fillings to make for an apple pie. I used 6 medium to large apples for my pie. You will need to remove their peelings and then cut them into quarters. Once you have done that it is very easy to remove and discard the cores.
A mixture of flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar is put into a bowl. Add the apple quarters and toss everything together to coat along with a tablespoon of lemon juice.
These get laid out into the pie crust, rounded sides up. I started at the outer edge and worked my way inwards, overlapping them a tiny bit to get them all in.
Once you have made and placed the filling you can make the streusel topping.
HOW TO MAKE THE STREUSEL TOPPING
Streusel toppings are usually fairly easy to make. They are as simple as stirring together some dry ingredients and rubbing in butter until you have a crumble mixture.
This streusel contains coconut. I used unsweetened shredded coconut. The recipe did not specify sweetened or not, but with sugar in the base/filling as well as in the streusel, I figured I could not go wrong by using unsweetened.
I always put my fruit pies onto a aluminum foil lined baking sheet to bake. You never know if a fruit pie is going to bubble over. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Or in this case it helps to prevent you from having to clean up burnt on sticky fruit juices and sugar from the floor of your oven.
This pie bubbled over the edge only a little bit, but I was still happy that I had used a baking sheet beneath the pie to catch it.
Because of the sweet nature of the streusel topping and the coconut it contains you may be worried that the topping will get too dark or even start to burn. The oven temperature is fairly high. (375*F/195*C)
Do keep an eye on the pie and check it about half way through the bake time. If you feel it is getting too dark, place a sheet of aluminum foil loosely over top. This will help to prevent the topping from burning.
You can always remove it for the last five minutes of bake time to crisp things up again if you are worried about that!
It is one thing to cut a piece out of a pie you are going to serve at home, but something else to cut a piece out of a pie you are bringing to someone else's home!
This would be delicious served warm or at room temperature with a scoop of ice cold vanilla ice cream on top or in the British way with some custard sauce or pouring cream!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
Apple Cobblestone Pie
Yield: 8 servings
Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 38 MinTotal time: 53 Min
This single crust apple pie boasts a coconut streusel topping. The pie itself is said to look like cobblestones. Its delicious no matter how it looks!
Ingredients
You will need:
- Pastry for one 9-inch unbaked single pie crust.
For the Filling:
- 6 to 10 medium apples, peeled, cored and quartered
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 3 TBS all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 TBS lemon juice
For the streusel topping:
- 2/3 cup coconut (50g) (the recipe did not specify sweetened or unsweetened. I used unsweetened)
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour (35g)
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar (50g)
- 2 TBS butter at room temperature
Instructions
- Prepare the pastry and use it to line a 9 inch deep pie dish, taking care not to stretch or tear the pastry and fluting the edge all the way around.
- Preheat the oven to 375*F/190*C/gas mark 5. Place the pastry lined pie dish onto a foil lined baking sheet. Set aside.
- Peel, quarter and core your apples. Mix the flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and apples together in a bowl along with the lemon juice. Combine well the apples are well coated.
- Arrange the apples in the pastry lined pie dish, rounded sides up, so that they resemble a cobbled street. Sprinkle any sugar mixture remaining in the bowl over top.
- Combine all of the topping ingredients together in a bowl, rubbing them together until crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over top of the apples.
- Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the apples are tender. If you think the streusel is getting to dark, cover lightly with a piece of aluminum foil, removing it for the last five minutes.
- Cut into wedges to serve. Ice cream goes very nicely!
Notes:
Large apples can be substituted for medium apples, peel and core as above, but cut each into 6 pieces.
When I was a child, one of the favorite things that my mother would bake for us as a real treat would be a lovely homemade apple pie. I was looking on here for my mom's apple pie recipe at the weekend and I couldn't believe I had never shared it.
Being one not to let the grass grow under my feet, I decided to rectify that omission right away! You won't find a much better apple pie than this one.
It has always been a favorite pie with all of us, not only because it is delicious but for me also because it is a really easy apple pie recipe.
It is a recipe that she learned how to make at her own mother's knee so I guess you could also consider this to be just like Grandma's old fashioned apple pie. Apple pie really doesn't get much better than this.
For me this is the best apple pie because not only is it delicious, but it is also quick and easy to make and doesn't require any faffing about.
Pure and simple ingredients done well. That's always been my promise to you. I made my own crust for this, but you can also use a good store bought ready-rolled pastry if you wish, which makes it even easier.
When we were children my mother would make several of these in the autumn when the apples were ripe and ready to be picked. One would be eaten on the day and the other one would be frozen for us to enjoy later in the year.
You can't beat having something tasty like a baked apple pie in the freezer ready to haul out when you are in need of a dessert but can't be asked to cook! When you are ready to serve it, just take it out of the freezer and leave it on the counter to thaw out. You can reheat it gently in a moderate oven (350*F/180*C) to freshen it up a bit.
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE AN APPLE PIE FROM SCRATCH
Simple, simple, simple . . . .
- peeled and sliced apples
- granulated sugar
- brown sugar
- cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves
- flour
- lemon juice
- butter to dot
- pastry for a 9-inch two crust pie
Some people like to add ginger to their apple pies. I don't and mom never did. Just plain old cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.
WHAT KIND OF APPLES TO USE FOR AN APPLE PIE
Ideally you will want to use a combination of apples. I like to mix a tart cooking apple with a semi tart crisp eating apple. You don't want to use a really sweet apple or an apple that falls apart when it bakes. That lets out anything like a red delicious apple. They simply do not cook well.
My favorite combination are Granny Smith and Gravenstein. But you can also use Jonagolds, McIntosh, Cortlands, Honey crisp, Fuji, Braeburns, and Golden Delicious. All hold their shape well.
Combining several different kinds is your best bet. This makes for the optimum flavor when it comes to an apple pie. Granny Smith's can often turn to mush however, although I love their sweet tartness.
So do use Granny Smith, but don't allow it to be any more than 1/3 of the apples in your pie. So 2/3 one other kind and 1/3 Granny Smith.
HOW TO MAKE THE FILLING FOR AN APPLE PIE
There is no extraordinary skill needed. If you can peel core and slice an apple, you can make this filling.
Some people have fancy apple peeler/corers. I don't. I favor a good old fashioned paring knife. Yes, I am one of those people who tries to pare off as much apple in one go as I can. Its an old childhood game I have never lost touch with.
Once you have the apples pared and cored you will need to slice them into wedges no larger than 1/2 inch thick. I vary from 1/3 to 1/2. Variety is the spice of life.
Place them into a large bowl and toss them together with some lemon juice. The acid in the lemon juice helps to prevent them from turning brown. It does not make the pie sour. There is enough sugar in an apple pie to prevent that from happening.
I like to use two kinds of sugar, a granulated white sugar and light brown sugar. The two together give a wonderful flavor to the apples. You need to mix that with some flour and then the spices.
Mom never used ginger as I said. I don't think I would like ginger in an apple pie. I think ginger is far too strong a flavor and would upset the balance of flavors. You could add a touch of ground cardamom if you want. Cardamom has a slight lemon flavor to it that goes very well with apples.
This mixture gets tossed together with your apples in the bowl. The apples will give off a fair amount of juice while they are baking and the flour helps to thicken the juices for a much better finish and to help prevent a soggy bottom on your pie.
Nobody wants a soggy bottom on their pie.
I also like to dot butter over the top of the filling once I get it all into the crust. It adds an element of richness to the filling.
You may think that it is an awful lot of apples for the filling, but trust me when I say it is just right. They will cook down to roughly half the size, so it is much better to start off with it looking quite generous.
I always use my butter and lard pastry for pies like this. It is such a lovely flakey pastry that works wonderfully here. You can find that recipe here. You will have to scroll down the page about halfway.
Some people like their apple pie served warm. Some people like it served ice cold. I am somewhere in the middle. Room temperature works for me.
In the UK they eat their apple pie warm with custard sauce. In North America it is usually a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream. I love apple pie with a thin wedge of a good cheddar cheese. Oh my but that is heavenly bliss.
This is a pie that keeps very well at room temperature for several days. Any longer than that and I would refrigerate it, and of course it freezes very well.
When I bake an apple pie, it always makes me think of mom. Her favorite pie was coconut cream, but she only ever very rarely made that. My father loved apple pies, and her wish was to please him. That and lemon meringue.
Those were the two pies we had most often. Sometimes she would make a pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, but always with another kind because our father didn't really like pumpkin pie.
Me . . . I like pie, and would not turn down any kind! But then again, I am a bit of a glutton when it comes to pie!
Mom's Best Apple Pie
Yield: 8
Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 45 MinTotal time: 1 H & 4 M
Ingredients
- Pastry for a two crust pie (See my butter & lard pastry)
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) soft light brown sugar, packed
- 3 TBS all purpose plain flour
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 6 to 7 thinly sliced peeled tart medium to large cooking apples (Granny Smith, Gravensteins, etc.)
- 1 TBS lemon juice
- 1 TBS butter
- sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375*F/ 195*C/ gas mark 5.
- Toss the apples together with the lemon juice in a large bowl. Mix the spices and flour together with both sugars. Toss the apples together with this mixture to coat. Set aside.
- Roll half of the pastry out on a lightly floured surface to a circle large enough to line a 9-inch pie plate. (about 12 inches round, 1/4 inch thick) Carefully transfer to the pie plate.
- Fill the pastry lined pie plate with the apple mixture. Dot with butter.
- Roll the remaining pastry out to a round large enough to cover the apples in the pie dish. Place over the filling. Trim any excess pastry from around the edges of the pie. Press the edges tightly closed with the tines of a fork. Cut some slits in top of the pie to vent.
- Sprinkle with additional granulated sugar. Cover the edges loosely with aluminum foil. Place onto a baking sheet.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown and the filling is bubbling up through the pie vents.
- Cool on a wire rack before serving.
I picked up a rather largish piece of pork loin roast the other day for about $7. It was rather large just for myself, but I knew that I would be cooking a meal for a friend's family later in the week, and I thought I could cut the remainder into chop sized pieces to use for making schnitzel or whatever another time.
I got 8 (1-inch thick) chops and enough pork from it to make this tasty pork and potato pie! I consider that to be a win! I did also make a small casserole of this dish for myself to have for my own supper as well.
I think when you are asked to send a meal to a family, the best thing you can make is a stew, soup or a casserole. Its usually for a time when they may be going through something rough and they may not have time to tinker about with a lot of fussing.
Something which can be simply reheated, or frozen for a later date is the best option. I had this pork and I found the perfect recipe for a simple pork and potato casserole with a biscuit topping in one of my favorite cookbooks.
Marcia Adams, New Recipes from Quilt Country. I have had both of her Amish books for years and years. I can remember watching her cooking show on PBS many years ago.
Actually PBS was ahead of its time, well before the food network came along. I can remember watching cooking shows on PBS back in the 80's and 90's and some very good ones at that.
That is how I first became acquainted with the Irish Chef, Paul Rankin and his ex wife Jeanne. Watching their Gourmet Ireland show on PBS. It used to be on in the 1990's.
Little did I know that I would one day get to meet Paul Rankin in person some years later. We were on a cooking show together in the UK, and he declared my soup to be delicious. It was my Parsnip and Apple Soup.
Life is a funny thing is it not? With all of its twists and turns. He was much shorter in real life than I had imagined him to be.
Back to this casserole dish. It is an Amish dish and we all know that the Amish are great cooks, much like the Mennonites.
I used to go to a Mennonite restaurant near Saint Jacob's in Ontario's horse and buggy country. They had the best food. It was called Anna Mae's.
Great home cooked meals, with ample portions, lovely bread and pies. All from scratch. Maybe I will get a chance to go there again one day.
This is not a pie in the real sense of pies. There is no top or bottom crust. Just a type of a biscuit cobbler topping.
The base is composed of a juicy tender pork and potato filling, in a lush flavor filled gravy. Cubes of pork are browned in a skillet until golden brown. Make sure you don't crowd the skillet or your pork will stew rather than brown.
Once it has browned you add some water and a bay leaf. The pork then gets simmered for about 40 minutes until it is starting to become fork tender.
Pork loin can be a very dry meat as it is so lean. This slow simmer prevents that from happening.
At the end of that time you add some celery, onion, potato and seasonings. A further simmer ensures perfectly tender and juicy pieces of pork, perfectly cooked potato, and a flavor filled broth, ready to be thickened in preparation for the oven bake.
It so simple to thicken the broth. Flour and milk, shaken or whisked together. Make sure you don't have your mixture bubbling when you whisk it in, or you will end up with lumps.
In fact, I would take the pan off the heat just to do this part. Slowly whisk it in until its amalgamated and then put the pan back on the heat. Slow and steady, constant whisking. That is key.
Return it back to the heat until the whole bit is bubbling and thickened. Ready to pour into your casserole dish.
That topping is just like a drop biscuit dough, made with butter and seasoned with celery seed and black pepper. You just drop it on top of the warm meat and potato filling in tablespoon sized amounts.
Into the oven it goes until the biscuit topping it golden brown and that is it! Casserole done!
Tender pieces of pork and potato . . . crisp buttery topping . . . deliciously simple.
Not a dry piece of meat in the mix and incredibly moreish. I do so hope the people this is intended for enjoy this.
In the meantime, if you are looking for a delicious sharing dish, or something tasty to take to a gathering, look no further. This tasty pork and potato pie fits the bill on all counts!
Amish Savory Pork Pie
Yield: Serves 6
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 1 H & 10 MTotal time: 1 H & 20 M
The meat and potato filling for this delicious cobbler type of pie can be made ahead several days in advance. Simply reheat, drop the biscuit topping on top and then bake when you are wanting to serve it. It makes the perfect dish for a take-along, or buffet.
Ingredients
- 1 TBS vegetable oil
- 1 pound lean fresh pork loin, cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1 cup (240ml) water
- 1 bay leaf, broken in half
- 2 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 bite-sized pieces
- 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
- 1 stick celery, peeled and copped
- 2 cups (480ml) chicken stock
- 1/8 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 TBS Worcestershire sauce
- 1 TBS dried parsley
- 1/4 cup (60ml) milk
- 2 1/2 TBS flour
For the cobbler topping:
- 1 cup (140 grams) plain all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp celery seed
- 1/8 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
- 3 TBS cold butter
- 1/2 cup (120ml) milk
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large heavy based skillet. Add the cubes of pork. Sauté until the pork is evenly browned, about 10 minutes or so. (Don't crowd the pan, doing it in batches if you need to.) Add the water and bay leaf. Bring to the boil, cover and reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 30 to 40 minutes until the pork is tender.
- Add the potatoes, celery, onion and the chicken stock. Continue to simmer for a further 20 minutes, covered. Stir in all of the seasonings.
- Whisk the flour and milk together until smooth. Whisk into the meat mixture, stirring constantly, cooking until the mixture bubbles up and thickens. Transfer everything to a baking dish (12 by 7 inches) (You can do it two days in advance up to this point if you wish.)
- Preheat the oven to 400*F/200*C.
- To make the cobbler topping, sift the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together. Stir in the celery seed and black pepper. Drop in the butter. Cut in using a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs.
- Add the milk all at once, blending together until just mixed. Using a tablespoon, drop the dough in dollops on top of the warm meat mixture.
- Bake for 10 minutes until the biscuit topping is golden brown. Serve hot.
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