Yesterday I decided to make an apple pie. I love apple pie with Thanksgiving dinner, and at Christmas (not much of a fan of pumpkin, and I can't get the canned requirements here anyway - and there's no way I'm making it from pumpkin scratch, so apple it is!) But I think I've only made 2 pies in my entire life - and both under the direct supervision of my mother (a master pie maker) so I knew that I would have to make at least one practice run...
Thankfully, my mother put together a recipe book a few years ago with all of our favorite family recipes which includes everything for our holiday celebrations. It doesn't include a recipe for the filling, but I found a great one in one of the old classics that my grandmother sent me years ago (a set of Fanny Farmer, Pilsbury, and Betty Crocker that I couldn't live without!) so coupled with my Mom's pie crust recipe, I felt extremely confident in my endeavor, if only I'd known...
I gathered all the ingredients for the pie on our regular Saturday trip to the store (stores are closed on Sunday, we have to load up and make sure we don't forget anything!) And after breakfast was cleaned up on Sunday, I decided to get the pie making under way.
And then came the first predicament... the recipe called for 3 cups of flour. It doesn't say whether the flour should be packed into the measuring cup, though; and that always causes a decision crisis for me. As many of you know there is a very delicate balance when it comes to ingredients with baking. And packing flour - or not, can definitely cause a "situation" if you do it wrong. I mean, it's basic chemistry!
The instructions section mentioned that the flour should be sifted. (And it was way too early to call my Mom in the states for help.) So I was perplexed. Did that mean sifted before putting the flour into the measuring cup? Or sifted after putting it into the measuring cup - and if it was after , still should I pack or not?
Well, I finally decided to pack the measuring cup, and sift after. Still need to speak with my Mom to see if that was a bad decision... in the end, I'm not even sure if that was the cause of my troubles. Because of course there are always other variables in play when it comes to baking...
Like your work surface and how much flour you put down before you roll out the dough... our counters here are definitely not the best for rolling. And I thought I floured enough, but who knows. So after very carefully making the dough, I spent a whole hour just rolling it out. I was trying so hard to get it perfect. Maybe even that was the problem, I just took too long...
Anyway, after rolling it out, to what seemed like an 1/8 of an inch (by the way - that's really thin!) I started to try and do the transfer to the pie plate... and believe me, this was not easy - it seemed stuck to the surface EVERYWHERE! I was trying to pry it up with the dough knife my Mom gave me, but it only seemed to wrinkle up into unusable thicknesses... I was nearing exasperation, when....
I heard Lulu say to Bas in the living room, "Paint Couch, paint couch!" and then Bas said, "Are you going to draw the couch?" (Meaning, are you going to make the couch the subject of your drawing?") And the thought flashed into my head - "No... she doesn't understand that yet, she's going to draw ON the couch!) But I was so wrapped up in trying to get the perfectly rolled out dough into the pan that it was too late. Bas suddenly announced that there was crayon all over the couch. The pie crust was done, crumpled, a total loss. (I don't blame Bas for this, it probably would have happened to me, too.)
I was so fed up. I had spent 2 hours already on the pie crust alone, and we wanted to do some other things with our Sunday, so I packed it all in, rolled the wasted dough into a ball and set in a bowl. Forget this! Didn't even refrigerate it!
But after heading out for a fun little excursion to a Weinachtskunstmarkt (Christmas craft fair) I decided to give it another go. I finally just hand pressed the bottom layer of the pie crust in place (pie making Gods please forgive me!) and put the filling in. But before I added the final crust layer, I rolled it out again. So at least the top layer was good.
And, when I did, I brainstormed that I should use the rolling pin to pick it up, by rolling it gently to get it up off the (now much more floured) surface - and it worked like a dream!
SO - in the end, it all worked out. And now that I figured it out, I think I can get the whole thing made properly. We'll see, I'll give it another go next weekend!
The pie turned out pretty well. The filling was awesome, although next time, I need to put more apples in (cutting up the apples is NOT fun!) Guess, I'll do it again next weekend, just to make sure I have it down. So much for losing any weight anytime soon!
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