Anyone have one? I think I want to try my hand at pie for the first time. I got some firm, tart-ish apples at the farmers market yesterday and I’m inspired.
StG
Will you be making your own crust for the first time? I always struggled with pie, and I found this tutorial tremendously helpful. It’s long, but when I’d read it I actually felt like I knew what I was doing.
It’s got the recipe for a two-crust pie, and it also tells you the ingredients and amounts for a fresh fruit filling. If you use apples, you get classic two-crust apple pie.
I also have a killer recipe for apple crumb, if that’s what you’re after. Post or PM me if you want it.
StuffLikeThatThere - For the first time, I’m going to use a pre-made crust. If I can get the filling right, then I’ll work on the crust.
StG
Then I would look up some of the many apple pie recipes in Cook’s Illustrated: you can find the magazine in the newsstands, you can browse their webpage (may need to pay) or catch their shows on PBS. It might not be “classic”, but they’ve spent some time carefully working out ratios of ingredients to make the pie perfect. So you should start there, and then experiment. Along those lines, you should look up Alton Brown’s recipes on the Cooking network webpage. Again, might not be classic, but you’ll learn proper proportions. Then you can experiment or try weirder recipes.
I made The Pioneer Woman’s apple pie, and it was very, very successful. Let me hunt for a link.
Edited: I didn’t realise that StuffLikeThatThere’s link was to the Pioneer Woman, too. Just do whatever she tells you to!
I swear by Cook’s Illustrated apple pie recipe. I use the one in their ATK Family Cookbook only I use three varieties of apples instead of two.
{Sorry to self reply – slow typist, edit duration, yadda yadda.}
The important thing about apple pie filling is correct proportions of ingredients so the filling cooks properly in the crust’s baking time. The correct type of apples, cut to the correct size depending on the apple type, all cut to a uniform size. (Yeah, that’s a complete duh! of course! concept. But it is time consuming, and people get slack.) The correct amount of sugar to match the type of apples. You’ll also need some type of acid, to brighten the flavor and help start break down the apples as cooking begins. Different recipes add other things like flour, corn starch, tapioca, pectin, butte, etc. depending on the balance of other ingredients.
If you slice the apples into quarters, add sugar and cinnamon, and put the top crust on, you’ll get a ruined mess. The apples will cook after the top crust bakes, leaving 2 inch hollow space. You’ll have half cooked apples under the dome of crust. And they will inexplicably taste of baking soda. I know this, because its happened to me for my first pie. And I’d seen pies that look like that being sold in supermarkets. And my description accurately matches what people who bought these pies experienced. And it will turn you right off apple pie making.
I have an apple lathe, to insure I slice the apples into precisely 1/4" slices. But I always have to refer to some online pie recipe source to get the base proportions right – of sugar, lemon juice, per lbs of apples. Only then do I screw with things like, replacing some sugar, adding a different spice, etc.