Making an Apple Pie for Thanksgiving
In my family I am the designated pie maker. I learned how to make a good piecrust in 4-H when I was 13 years old. My pies have been a staple at every Thanksgiving meal since then.
Piecrust is essentially just flour and fat. There isn’t much flavor in the dough. I think the purpose of a crust is to hold a yummy filling and that’s why it doesn’t have or need flavor. A few years ago Rangi mentioned that the crust was flavorless and asked if there was a way to add flavor to it. I did a bit of research and discovered an apple pie recipe that adds cheese to the crust. I made this for my rellys (Aussie for relatives) and this pie has been requested ever since.
This year I decided to try to make the crust in the Cuisinart. Usually I make the crust manually cutting the Crisco and butter in with two knives. Yesterday I was in a bit of a rush so the Cuisinart method looked like the way to go. Well, I’ll never do that again.
Initially it appeared to be a faster method. The Crisco and butter quickly formed pea shapes in the flour as a pulsed the ingredients together. Then it was time to add the water and cheese. The dough did not mix well at all. It clumped together in the mixing bowl, parts of it were wet and others dry. I quickly transferred the mixture into another bowl to mix it by hand and discovered that it was too sticky and wet. It also felt like I beat the heck out of the gluten. I added more flour to create the proper consistency and decided to let the dough rest overnight in the fridge.
This morning I put together the pie together. The dough was still a bit sticky and I didn’t put enough flour on the granite board so I had to roll out the bottom portion 3 times before I was able to pick it up and put it in the pie plate. Hopefully it has still retained some of its flakiness. The top portion was easier to work with because I used a generous about of flour on the granite surface and diligently floured the top and bottom of the dough.
The pie is now cooking. I had to take it out to apply a glaze and a nice flake came off of the edge so I was able to sample the product. The crust was surprisingly light and flaky. Hopefully the pie will come out nicely. I’ll let you know in my next post.
Piecrust is essentially just flour and fat. There isn’t much flavor in the dough. I think the purpose of a crust is to hold a yummy filling and that’s why it doesn’t have or need flavor. A few years ago Rangi mentioned that the crust was flavorless and asked if there was a way to add flavor to it. I did a bit of research and discovered an apple pie recipe that adds cheese to the crust. I made this for my rellys (Aussie for relatives) and this pie has been requested ever since.
This year I decided to try to make the crust in the Cuisinart. Usually I make the crust manually cutting the Crisco and butter in with two knives. Yesterday I was in a bit of a rush so the Cuisinart method looked like the way to go. Well, I’ll never do that again.
Initially it appeared to be a faster method. The Crisco and butter quickly formed pea shapes in the flour as a pulsed the ingredients together. Then it was time to add the water and cheese. The dough did not mix well at all. It clumped together in the mixing bowl, parts of it were wet and others dry. I quickly transferred the mixture into another bowl to mix it by hand and discovered that it was too sticky and wet. It also felt like I beat the heck out of the gluten. I added more flour to create the proper consistency and decided to let the dough rest overnight in the fridge.
This morning I put together the pie together. The dough was still a bit sticky and I didn’t put enough flour on the granite board so I had to roll out the bottom portion 3 times before I was able to pick it up and put it in the pie plate. Hopefully it has still retained some of its flakiness. The top portion was easier to work with because I used a generous about of flour on the granite surface and diligently floured the top and bottom of the dough.
The pie is now cooking. I had to take it out to apply a glaze and a nice flake came off of the edge so I was able to sample the product. The crust was surprisingly light and flaky. Hopefully the pie will come out nicely. I’ll let you know in my next post.
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