Bakers! To me!

[Spork4pedro]

Ok...So this Thanksgiving will be my first time cooking the whole dinner and I am wanting to make a lot of it myself instead of buying premade. One of my goals is to actually make a pie from scratch. Now I, myself, detest pie but The Boy LOVES him some apple pie and I thought that I would try to make this treat for him.

Now, I have a good (or so I've been told) recipe for pie dough that seems easy enough but I'm trying to find a good recipe for the filling and nothing has caught my eye. Does anyone have a good recipe that they are willing to share?

Also any tips on making said pie are welcome

[SongsOfDragons]

I suck at making pastry (so does my mother; we joke that it's hereditary XD) - my hands are warm and rubbing the butter into the flour becomes a horrible flat grey mess very quickly. I leave the shortcrust in our house to my housemate whose hands are nice and cold and the pastry comes out light and tasty.

I've no idea on the filling unfortunately.

I leave you with a quote from Chicken Run...
"Chickens go in, pies come out!!"
"Oooh!! What kind of pie?"
"Apple."

[sms001]

Don't know about the filling, I usually play it by ear depending on apple availability, but if your dough recipe doesn't emphasize it, be sure to keep things COLD. Having solid fats is the key to a good, flaky crust so don't let that butter/shortening etc. melt. Good luck!

[KiaKat]

I will check my notes when I get home and post my recipe. It's more for a cobbler or crisp, but could be edited for a pie.

[thansal]

Apple filling is one of those ones where simple is better.

Apples, sugar, cinnamon, and possibly some other spices.

I'll bug the GF fro her recipeShe came online, Recipe below:
6 medium apples
2 tablespoons cinnamon
a teaspoon baking soda
a pinch of salt
a cup of sugar

Toss it all together :P

Baking is 425 for 30 min then turn it down to 350 for 30-45 min depending on how cooked you want the apples cooked

Our lazy pie crust (quoted from friends):
1 c flour, and pinch of salt
cut in 6/8 stick of butter til crumbly
add 1 egg yolk and *smoosh* together. add an eggshell of coldcold water, if you need more moisture.
take ball of dough, place in pie pan and squish it til it covers the whole surface relatively evenly. You will get a flaky, buttery, delicious pie crust of doom ^_^

(the fact that the technical term smoosh is used is VERY important)

My grand mum's pie crust (wonderful, but requires actual work):
Perfect Pie Crust (now with Flour!)

4 C flour
1 T sugar
2 t salt
1 ¾ c solid veg. shortening
1 T vinegar
1 large egg
½ c water

Combine 1st 3 ingredients in large bowl.
Add shortening. Cut in w/ fork or pastry cutter.
Beat water w/ vinegar and egg and add to flour mixture.
Stir till moistened.
Divide into 4 (for 9” crust) or 5 (for 8” crust) pieces.
Make into patties and chill at least ½ hr. (can be frozen.)
To bake as empty shell, 450º for 12-15 min

[MaggieTheCat]

I just made apple pie last weekend! It turned out wonderful, it's my favorite pie.

The most important thing about the filling for an apple pie is to get good baking apples. Some apples just turn to mush when cooked and that's not a good consistency for pie. It's also nice if you can get a couple different kinds of apples, both tart and sweet, to help balance out the flavors. Good baking apples include Granny Smith, Braeburn, Pink Lady, Johnathan, Golden Delicious, Empire...there's more, those are just the ones I can think of off-hand. Try googling "good baking apples" or "types of apples for pie" or something like that, there are plenty of lists and resources out there.

Next is to decide how thin you want to cut your apples. If you cut them really thin, they will be soft all the way through when baked. If you cut them about 1/4" thick, they could still have a slight crunch to them when baked. Both ways are good. I cut mine thick this weekend and liked it a lot. The apple slices held their shape and weren't mushy.

Unfortunately, pie filling recipes are going to vary vastly and widely. It's largely going to be based on how big your apples are, what kinds and how sweet they are, and how sweet you want the final result to be. Thansal posted a good sounding recipe, but I personally think that 1 cup of sugar is way too much. I used 1/2 cup this weekend and it was plenty (for me.) I used 2 granny smiths, 2 braeburn and 2 pink lady apples. The braeburn were huge (larger than my fist) and the pink ladies were on the small side (about the size of a tennis ball) so they kind of balanced out, size-wise. Usually 5-8 apples makes enough filling for a pie, depending on size.

I have never heard of putting baking soda in a pie filling. Thansal, do you know the science/reasoning behind that? I might have to try that sometime. My basic apple pie filling (all approximated) is:

6ish apples
the juice of one lemon (optional)
1/2 cup white sugar
lots of cinnamon
2-3 tablespoons white flour

Peel, core, and slice apples. If you have a lemon, toss the apples in the lemon juice as you're slicing them to keep them from browning. (I didn't have a lemon this weekend and it was still fine without.) When all the apples are sliced, toss with sugar, cinnamon, and flour.

The flour is there to help thicken the juices as the pie bakes, so the filling doesn't turn out runny. You can also use quick cooking tapioca for this.

After putting the apple filling in the bottom crust (but before putting the top crust on), dot the apples with about 1-2 tablespoons cut up butter. This also helps form a nice sauce from the apple juices.

After getting the pie assembled, rub the top crust with a drizzle of cream, then sprinkle with sugar. This results in a nicely brown and slightly crunchy top crust.

Also once you get the pie assembled, don't forget to cut some slits in the top crust to let the steam out. You can get decorative if you want and cut things like hearts. I just take a paring knife and make about 5 slits in the top (1 long one down the center, then 2 getting progressively shorter on either side.)

Bake your pie on a baking/cookie sheet, so if the filling boils over, it doesn't burn in your oven.

Bake it long enough in advance so that you have AT LEAST 2 hours to let it cool before cutting into it. If you cut into a hot pie, all the juice will spill out of it.

Good luck and enjoy!

Edit to add: Thansal, I think you forgot the flour in your crust recipe...

[thansal]

buahaha

I had forgotten about that. I just grabbed the recipe from the email from my mum, who had forgotten it and sent me a corrected email latter :P (fixed it in the first post)

As for the baking soda? I'm not sure (this is one of those recipes that has simply been in my GF's family forever), though I'm guessing it's to act as sort of a tenderizer for the apples. She has tried it with out the soda, however the results were not as good (she says).



The worst bit is that the GF has been promising me an apple pie for the past few weeks and we just never get around to it, now I'm craving one...

[Kogarashi]

Well, you've already got two filling recipes, but here's my grandmother's recipe as well. This is one of my absolute favorite pies to see in her Thanksgiving spread, second only to her lemon meringue.

Grandma Sisson's Apple Pie, makes an 8" pie

5 large apples, peeled, cored, and sliced 1/4-3/8" thick (Cortland and Granny Smith are best; use tart apples rather than sweet)
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
2 1/2 tbsp. flour
(also 2 oz. butter, cold; see directions)

Stir all ingredients except butter together and pour into unbaked pie shell. Slice butter thin and lay on top of apples. Wet edge of crust with cold water, put on top crust, cut off excess, and flute crusts together with a fork. Bake at 400 F for 15 minutes, lower to 375 F and bake for 50 minutes. Poke fork into pie to make sure apples are tender.

It should be noted that following these directions exactly leaves an air pocket between the filling and the top crust, due to the apples reducing during baking. As far as I'm aware, the only way to fix this is to pre-cook the apples so they're already reduced in size, but I don't know how that would affect Grandma's recipe. Frankly, I don't mind the air pocket.

[thansal]

The only way that I know of to remove the air pocket is to do a lattice work top, which I'm not overly fond of tbh.

[MaggieTheCat]

The airpockets folks are getting are likely due to steam (produced by the fruit as it bakes) not being able to escape the crust, resulting in the top crust ballooning up and forming a pocket. Make sure to cut slits in the top crust to let the steam escape. I've never had a problem with pockets between the fruit and top crust when I do this.

[Ironclad Alibi]

For those who do like to make the dough for crusts, several varieties of premade crusts can be found at some grocery stores.

Regarding the title of this thread, I half way expected it to be about the current online story line in Girl Genius.

[Food Lady]

I have a couple comments:

--I have used a similar crust recipe to the one posted with the baking soda. I like it. It has texture.
--I like to really pile up the apple slices, a couple inches above the pie plate rim, and in a mountain-like shape. I also mold the crust around the apples a bit, to give it eye appeal.
--Cloves make a difference, but it must be subtle. If the recipe calls for 2 teaspooons cinnamon, I'd put in 1/2 tsp ground cloves.
--I like to use some brown sugar, up to half the amount.
--A mix of sweet/wine-y apples (like Macintosh) and tart (like Granny Smith) works well.
--An easy way to cover the pie plate is to roll a little crust at a time and cut out little circles. Shingle them all over the pie plate. That way, while you work a small amount of dough, the rest can stay refrigerated. You will have to put extra circles on the plate edge to build it up. I'd overhang them and fold under.

[Jester]

As I've made very clear here and elsewhere, I cook, I don't bake.

That being said, if you want to try something delicious but non-traditional, I have a killer recipe for a frozen pina colada pie, which I have actually made, and to great reception.

Also, if you want any killer recipes for stuffing, tropical cranberry sauce, or a whiskey glazed ham, just let me know. I'd be more than happy to share them with you. Since, of course, not one of them is an original of mine.

But whatever you do, don't ask me about mashed potatoes. For they are my Nemesis. Curses, Mashed Potatoes! You've foiled me yet again!

[Spork4pedro]

Wow..Thanks for the great recipes and tips. Especially with the types of apples since I was hoping to mix kinds for a different flavor.

the idea of the baking soda sounds interesting! I may have to try it....I'll let you know how it turns out!

[Marmalady]

When I make apple pie I always use Bramley's Seedling, which have a wonderfully tart flavour (I eat them raw too like dessert apples, I like sharp flavours)
Ground clove is a must, it really enhances the apple flavour, and sometimes I add some sultanas (golden raisins).
Sometimes I mix some quince jelly in with the apple slices instead of using sugar, that's lovely as well. Or if I have any mincemeat left over from making mince pies, I'll stir a couple of spoonfuls of that (and a little brandy) through the apple.