Sweetie Pie

Apple Blueberry Pie

Cold days are perfect for pie making.  The pastry stays cold while you're working with it.  Apples and citrus fruits and cranberries are available.  The hot oven fills the kitchen with warmth and the whole house with the smell of butter, fruit, cinnamon and the mysterious aroma of a beautiful pie. We've finally had some frosty mornings here in South Carolina, and the holidays are officially here.  I made a special pie to welcome my family and kick off the baking season.  I used Chez Pim's One Pie Dough to Rule Them All (don't mess with perfection) for the crust.  Click through for her easy to follow directions and beautiful photography.  Actually, I made the three batches of dough and put two in the freezer for later.  It was satisfying to see all those empty butter wrappers and boxes scattered through the kitchen.  For the filling, I looked on a few of my favorite baking blogs and settled on a recipe from Smitten Kitchen, who got the recipe from America's Test Kitchen.  Naturally I made a few small changes, but only in the fruit.  I used four large Granny Smith apples, one small Fugi apple, and one cup of blueberries. 

Apple Blueberry Pie

4 or 5 Granny Smith apples

1 or 2 Fugi or McIntosh apples

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (defrost in a bowl of warm water before using)

1 lemon, zested and juiced

3/4 cups plus 1 Tablespoon sugar

2 Tablespoons all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1 egg, beaten

2 pie shells

Adjust oven rack to lowest position and preheat to 500 degrees.  Place a rimmed baking sheet on the rack to preheat.

Roll out the pie dough for the bottom crust and place in pie pan.  Refrigerate the dough lined pie plate while you assemble the rest of the ingredients.

Peel, core and dice apples and toss with 1 Tablespoon lemon juice and the zest from one lemon.

In another small bowl, combine the sugar, flour, salt and spices.  Pour the dry ingredients over the fruit and toss to combine.  Turn this fruit mixture into the cold pie shell and mound it slightly in the center.

Roll out the dough for the top crust.  Brush the edges of the bottom crust with egg (it will glue the two pieces together) and then place the top crust on........the top! Trim the top and bottom edges of dough to 1/2 inch beyond pan lip.  Tuck this rim of dough underneath itself and seal the edges with a fork or a fancy fluted edge.  Cut 4 to 6 slits in the top crust for venting.  If this has taken a long time and the dough is getting warmish, place the whole pie in the freezer for 10 minutes to chill. Brush the top of the pie with the beaten egg and sprinkle with the 1 Tablespoon sugar.  Place the pie in the oven on the hot baking sheet and lower the oven temperature to 425.  Bake until the top crust is golden, about 20 minutes.  Rotate the pie and reduce oven temperature to 375.  Continue baking until juices bubble and crust is a deep golden brown, 30-35 minutes longer.  If you are getting dark brown spots that might burn, you can cover them with foil to slow down the browning.  This tends to happen around the edges. 

Smell the crust, see the juices bubbling, know that you are a pie goddess, remove it carefully from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool to room temperature.  This will take hours, so you might need to leave the house and run some errands while it smells delicious and slowly cools.

The crust is so flaky and perfect that I could eat it alone.  The filling is wonderfully spiced and mildly tart from the Granny Smiths.  This is a good pie.

 

Thanksgiving?

What foods mean Thanksgiving to you?  Holidays have many meanings, traditions and memories for different people, and I'd like to know what dishes make this one special for you.  Please leave a comment and share what you must have on your Thanksgiving table this year.  My favorite is the cranberry sauce.  I love cooking it, I love trying new recipes, and I love eating it. 

Pistachio Chai Muffins

Here's another delicious recipe from Cooking Light magazine. These muffins are mildly sweet, with exotic spices and salty crunch. The chai flavor comes from tea bags broken open and mixed into the flour. The hardest part of this recipe by far is shelling the pistachios. It's well worth the effort though because these muffins would be nothing special without that crunchy salty topping.

Pistachio Chai Muffins

from Cooking Light

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 chai blend tea bags

1 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup melted butter

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided

1 egg

1/3 cup shelled dry roasted pistachios, chopped

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon water

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Cut open the tea bags and add to the flour mixture. In a separate bowl, combine the buttermilk, butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and egg and stir well with a whisk. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the wet ingredients, stirring just until moist.

Prepare a 12 cup muffin tin and divide batter evenly into the muffin cups. Sprinkle pistachios over the batter. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in pan.

Combine remaining 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, powdered sugar, and 1 tablespoon water, stirring until smooth. Drizzle evenly over muffins. YUM.

Almond Crescents

Every once in a while I stumble upon a recipe so simple and so perfect that it immediately makes it into permanent rotation.  These charming little cookies have only 4 ingredients:  almonds, sugar, egg whites, and citrus zest.  I made them once with lemon and once with orange zest and both were awesomely good.  Batman stopped by to help stir these up.  Unfortunately I had to do most of the work because he had to go to time out for throwing sugar.  You would think a hero would have better manners.
Although almonds are consumed around the world, the US is by far the largest market.  California produces 80% of the worlds supply with more than half a million acres in the state under almond cultivation.   This tree is in the same family as peaches (prunus) and produces fruit with a tough outer layer, which is equivalent to the fleshy part of a peach, and inside is the hard shell like a peach pit, and inside of that is the almond.  This small deciduous tree is ancient, mentioned multiple times in the Bible and ancient Greek medical texts.  The Romans showered newlyweds with almonds as a fertility charm.  It's also very nutritious, and according to the Almond Board of California, 1 ounce of almonds contains 6 grams of protein, 3.5 grams of fiber, 35% daily value of vitamin E, 8% daily value of calcium, and only 1 gram of saturated fat and 13 grams of the good unsaturated fats.  This makes it a heart healthy, nutritionally dense food, and very satisfying snack.  Almonds can be found in many forms, including almond meal or flour which is simply ground up almonds.  You can find it in most grocery stores in the health food or baking aisle, you can order it on line, or you can make your own in a food processor.  Keep your almonds in the refrigerator for a very long shelf life. 

Almond Crescents

recipe from Rachel Allen

2 egg whites

1/2 cup sugar

7 ounces almond meal

zest of one orange or lemon

Sliced almonds to roll the cookies in, about 1 cup.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Mix together the sugar, almond meal and citrus zest and set aside.

Place the egg whites in a small bowl.  The easiest way to separate eggs is to break one at a time into a small bowl.  If you are gentle when you crack the shell, the yolk will remain intact.  Now you can simply fish it out with your hand and let the white fall through your fingers.  This is a good recipe to practice on because it won't ruin your cookies if you accidentally break the yolk and get a little in with the whites.

Beat the egg whites up a little with a fork and add them to the dry ingredients a little at a time.  Depending on the size of your eggs, you might not need every drop of the whites.  You just want the dough to come together enough to roll it into a log.  My dough was very soft and sticky.  Roll it into a log on a clean work surface.  Place the sliced almonds in a dish to roll the cookies in.  Line a pan with parchment paper.  Using a knife, cut off small pieces of dough and shape them into crescents with your fingers.  Work quickly and drop each cookie into the sliced almonds, roll it around and place it on the pan.  These cookies are quite small and you should get 16-18 out of one recipe.

Bake for about 15 minutes.  You will want to keep an eye one them because those sliced almonds can burn easily.  When they are done they will be lightly golden and cracked on top.  Let them cool on the pan if you can resist gobbling them right up.  I seriously considered eating every single one and then pretending like the whole recipe never happened.  What cookies?