Apple Experiment #2

This time, I used phyllo. It turned out ok (a little soggy), but I know I can do better. For one thing, the filling was too wet, and the apple pieces were too large. Next time, I will cut the dough into four strips instead of three, and make filling from smaller pieces of apples with no peel that were cooked for a shorter period of time. I will also sprinkle the dough with ground almonds (or maybe dry bread crumbs) before folding. I had considered including brie or even bacon in the filling, and will revisit that in the future.

As it was, I got 14 votes (only voted for myself once)--third place got 17 votes, so I'm pretty happy with my experiment.

Apple Experiment

This weekend is Apple Fest at our church. Among other things, we're having an apple bake-off. There are a LOT of good bakers at my church, so I wanted to do something a little different than a regular apple pie or apple cake. When I was in 7th grade, I learned to make pie pastry, and was pretty good at it. Lately, I've been having issues with pie pastry. It's gotten to be more difficult to deal with, and I don't know why. Instead, I decided to use the dough recipe that goes with the Pecan Tartlets I make every year at Christmas. This dough uses butter, cream cheese, and flour. It's very simple, delicious, and flaky, at least in the form of mini tarts.

Today, we're going to another Renaissance Day field trip (like this one), and I decided to give my experiment a trial run before the bake-off. The basic procedure is easy: mix the dough, roll out, cut out rounds, fill with a little applesauce, fold over, pinch closed, brush with egg wash, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, bake at 350 degrees. Easy, right?

I made up the dough, and realized that it doesn't roll out as well as traditional pie dough. It's very tender & delicate, and tended to fall apart on me. Also, I was using a very chunky applesauce for the filling, and some of the chunks were too large. I got one round on the Silpat and in the oven and was pretty frustrated. While they cooked, I rolled and cut out the rest of the dough, but didn't fill them right away. Maybe the waiting made the difference. Maybe I rolled the dough out thicker. I don't know what it was, but the second batch was much sturdier than the first. Also, after brushing with the egg wash, I dunked the top side in the cinnamon sugar before sprinkling more on once they were on the Silpat. Much better coverage!

It's not hard to tell which ones were from the second half.

At any rate, I think they all taste fine, but I have a confession: I'm tired. I've been working more lately, and more in the evenings. I don't feel like making finicky dough again. So for Sunday's entry, I'm going to buy some puff pastry and use that instead. It'll probably taste even better, and I know it'll be easier. More pictures to come!

The Apple Report

I'm pleased to report good progress on the apples. I've made:

• three batches of crockpot applesauce--this is an absolutely stellar way to use up apples.  Four pounds of cut up, partially peeled apples, a quarter cup of sugar, some cinnamon, and a couple ounces of water. Let it go on low for several hours, stirring occasionally. I got about six cups of finished applesauce. This last batch I left a little chunkier than the previous two for a special purpose. More about that later this week. 
• one batch of roasted apple butter--seven cut up, thoroughly peeled apples and a cup and a half of unsweetened apple juice. Roast at 450 degrees for half an hour. Mash the apples and continue to roast at 350 degrees until thick and brown, stirring occasionally. This is not something I'll be doing again. For one thing, leaving my oven on for hours is not something I like to do often. Also, it made a huge mess of the pan. As the apples reduce, they take up less space, so the little bits left on the sides of the pan get VERY black. The pan is soaking in the sink, and I know it'll come clean, but it's a definite negative aspect. Sarah had the apple butter on her toast this morning, and did like it, but it seemed like a lot of work for not a lot of product (direct opposite of the crockpot applesauce). 
• one apple crisp--about three cups of cut up, peeled apples, 1/4 cup sugar, and a dash of cinnamon in a baking dish.  Mix 3/4 cup each of flour and oatmeal with 1/3 cup of brown sugar, then cut in half a cup of cold butter, cut into pieces. Sprinkle over the top of the apples and bake at 350 degrees for 30 - 40 minutes. Delicious, but the calorie count is a little high.
• we've all been eating raw apples quite a bit. I'd say I have one on most days.. Can't beat that!

 We still have a fair number of apples left, but they're the smaller ones. If I have to peel apples, I'd rather do 10 big ones than 20 small ones. I think for our last production, I'll get out the hand crank peeler, since I want uniformly peeled and sliced pieces. Someone mentioned on a previous post "cake in a jar." My mom has done that in the past, and really liked the results. We have an apple cake recipe from my grandma that we really like. Sarah & I dug out all my canning jars this morning. I have about six wide mouth pint jars, and about 600 (or so it seems) wide mouth half-pint jars. I need to buy more lids, and we'll give it a go tonight or (more likely) tomorrow. I'm hoping they turn out well enough to give as part of Christmas goodie packs.

I did have to throw four or five apples away (a couple felt like grenades, ready to explode and barely held together by their skins. Gross). I also had to cut away some bruises, but for the most part, there's been fairly little waste from this year's orchard trip.

Apple Overload

When we went to the orchard a week ago, I paid for two half-bushel bags.  In previous years, I'd had trouble getting through just one half-bushel bag, so I don't know what possessed me this year. After a week of eating apples but no time to bake, here's what we had left.
 
Yep, barely made a dent.  So Sunday night I made crockpot applesauce.  We had it on pancakes for breakfast yesterday and it was fabulous. But it only took ten apples. Last night I made an apple crisp, which was heaven.  Seriously, it was all I could do not to polish off what was left in the dish. But it only used four apples.

Do you see where I'm going with this?  I'm going to have some serious difficulty here using up all these apples.  Yes, there's my grandma's apple cake recipe. I think I'm going to freeze or can some applesauce. I'd like to make some little apple hand pies. I was also thinking of apple chips/dried apples. Oh, and some of that applesauce can be reduced down to apple butter. 

Today is the best day for me to get anything accomplished, but of course there are several other things that need my attention as well, so we'll see how much actually gets done.

Apple Crisp
4 medium apples, big chopped
shake of cinnamon
1/4 cup white sugar
Mix and put in baking dish.
1/2 c old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
few shakes of cinnamon
Mix oats, flour, cinnamon & sugar.  Add butter and mix in until crumbly.  Sprinkle over apples.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 - 40 minutes.  Eat while warm, preferably with vanilla ice cream. (I also chopped up about a tablespoon of candied ginger to add to the apples.  Love that little hit of spice!)
Serves six.  Per portion: calories: 325, carbs 47, fat 16, protein 2, fiber 4

Yeah, it's not health food.  But it's a really delicious treat!