Monday, October 04, 2010

Caramel Apple Lattice Pie

Sorry again for horrible photos, I got out that cheap 7 dollar thing again to take these... Can't wait till Logan's phone and therefore my camera is fixed ;)



Okay, so I tried my best. They are not the most elegant looking things, but I am proud. :) According to Logan "THIS TASTES AMAZING" . Todd liked it too. I thought it was good for a first try, I have ideas for next time.


So with those apples that were on sale, I wanted to make a pie. Buuutttttt, I didn't want to make any pie, I wanted to try to make a lattice pie. I think they look cooler. And I wanted it to have caramel in it, like the pies that we had at the bakery I worked at that I always wanted to try but never had the money to buy.

First thing first, I needed a recipe. I pulled out all of my recipe books, and found nothing for either, and only one fully covered apple pie and a few pie/pastry crust recipes. Did a few searches on allrecipes.com and I could not find what I wanted, even using the ingredient search. So I guess it is time for a wildly crazy Wing-it creation!

I found one for "Never-Fail Pastry Crust" I liked the look of in my FCCLA-HERO cook book from school (was a fundraiser) and this is the crust that has been used for years and years. However, it made 6 single pies or 3 double crusted pies, and I did not need that much! Heck I am lucky I had two tin pie pans from my mom! So I roughly estimated half of everything. Also, the recipe called for vinegar, something we don't have yet (its going on the list! I keep looking at it in the store and decide we don't have the money for it yet)

(THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I DID. STATING CHANGES I WOULD MAKE AT BOTTOM)

2 cups sifted flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp sugar sifted together in large bowl. (Or mix in blender if don't have sifter hahaha) Cut in 3/4 cup lard or crisco with pastry knife (or two butter knifes hack hacking away till crumbly like meal)
In a separate small bowl, beat 1 egg (couldn't cut that in half) and 1/4 cup COLD water. Mix into dry mixture gently till balls up and then knead gently on lightly floured surface. Separate into 3 portions.
Roll out 2 on floured ice cream bucket lid with empty wine bottle, then place pie tin over, and flip pastry in. Press into sides evenly. Place in fridge. 







 Wash and cut up 3 large honeycrisp apples. An easy way to do this is to place stem down on your cutting board, and then get a small, sharp knife and cut in thin sections down. I tried to take a picture of this on the left, but the camera is 300 kb, not even 1 mega-pixel lol. Essentially just do really thin cuts all the way down for 360 degrees. keep the apple together until the end, and then the sections easily come apart like an orange! 



Then sprinkle the apples with about 3 tbs white sugar and 4 tbs brown  sugar and cover if possible to shake or stir it all up.


As evenly as possible lay out the thin apple slices on the crust. Then put back in the fridge until caramel sauce is done.


For that I took the rest of the bag of kraft caramels we had eaten some of (39 pieces left actually) and poured in just under 2/3 cup Dulce De Lechce International creamer, as I did not have half and half and did not want to open the new galleon of milk. Microwave for about 3 minutes, stirring every minute. Then drip and pour evenly over the apples.




Roll out the last of the pastry and cut into strips, lay in a criss cross pattern across the top of the pie and brush with a bit of the Dulce De Lechce. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, then lower to 350 for about 40 minutes. 



 Let cool on cooling rack for at least 10 minutes before cutting. Serve by itself or with some vanilla ice cream and a bit of the left over caramel sauce! XD


WHAT I WOULD DO NEXT TIME: I would make the full six crusts, so they could be a bit thicker. I would use double crusts on the bottom of the pies and place a thin layer of butter in between to make it more like a flaky puff pastry. Also I want to dab the apples with some pats of butter. I want to learn how to make a better lattice, but other wise these were awesome!!!! Yay me! 

2 comments:

  1. This pie, looks damn good!! even if you say it doesnt look that good... i still think it does!! :) i would eat it all...

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  2. It does somehow look better in the pictures, in real life they were no where near even. Very delicious though! Todd ate most of them all in one day. I had my one piece and Logan had two that night. Todd had eaten the rest before dinner. He wants me to make more :) That in my opinion, is the sign of a fairly good cook

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