Epic pie
This past weekend I made more pies than I’ve ever made before. A friend of mine was selling her Tea Pops at a Fall festival and needed pies to sell as well; so I made her a dozen.
First the all-butter (always!) double crusts, assembly-line style, a couple days ahead of time.
Then I cut and spiced the apples the night before. In order to set the pectins and make sure the apples didn’t dissolve into mush in the pie, each pies’ worth got microwaved for 2 minutes and then tossed with sugar, cornstarch, boiled cider and apple cider vinegar. They macerated in the sugar all night and by morning had released lots of juice.
I simmered that juice on the stove until it thickened and caramelized:
Then poured it over the pies in equal portions and capped off the pies with the top crusts, which were brushed with egg white and sugared.
Into the oven for 25 minutes at 425 and another 30 at 375, and voila:
PIEZ.
I kept one for myself and ohhhhhh, it was goooooood! Apparently they were a huge hit at the festival too.
October 1st, 2012 at 9:11 pm
ohhh.. that IS epic pie! great work!
October 2nd, 2012 at 3:06 pm
hee! And the best part is…. she didn’t sell them all so I have a bunch of pies in the freezer just waiting to be whipped out for company on a whim! I may not have to cook dessert ever again!
October 2nd, 2012 at 3:17 pm
wow! but um.. no need to wait for company! pie is also a breakfast food…so you know… have some in the mornings. ha! 😀
October 17th, 2012 at 2:59 pm
What? You can freeze pies? How did you wrap them? I’d be afraid of freezer burn and send them to work with my husband. Must learn your technique!
October 18th, 2012 at 9:03 pm
I wrapped them… and wrapped them… and wrapped them some more. I have never frozen a half-pie, only whole pies. I once heard a chef say the mistake most people make was in not wrapping freezer stuff enough, putting like 3 layers of saran wrap and nothing else. Also cook’s illustrated did tests on different kinds of saran wrap. The sticky stuff, stretch-tite, is good at grabbing but really sucks at keeping food fresh. The non-sticky type that’s a pain to work with is really the one that works great in the freezer. So I alternate layers. The stretchy stuff keeps everythign wrapped up tightly, but the other stuff is for protection. And I do like 6 layers each, folded over each side on top, so that’s like 12 layers! I’d hope that’s enough.