Elle's New England Kitchen: apple

Thursday, October 2, 2008

The Apple Crisp that makes me feel like a kid again.

And that's no small feat! We won't talk about which birthday I just celebrated, but my 5 year old son tells me I'm still cute, so that helps. A lot, hehe.

This is the kind of apple crisp I remember having as a kid. My mom never made it until I was older--she didn't really like to bake much, but it's the kind you find in a good diner or mom and pop restaurant. Not that we ate in diners a lot, but there was always something special about having apple crisp back then since we never had it at home. It's nice and oaty and crumbly on top, and underneath--nice, sweet, cinnamon kissed apples.

Every year we go to Gould Hill Orchard in Contoocook, NH. (Sounds like Con-took-cook.) It's a family run farm that's 225 years old, and they have over 85 unique varieties of apples, not to mention gorgeous views of the area. They also make their own apple cider that is so refreshing.

Views from the orchard.

We were there in late September, and got a peck of mixed apples including Honeycrisp, Jonathan, Macoun, Paula Red, Swiss Gourmet, Porter--and of course, Cortlands. So I have no clue which apples were used in this apple crisp. For a complete list of varieties and when they're available at Gould's, check out the site. And if you're in the area, I urge you to check out their farm--it's beautiful and peaceful. And you just can't beat the views. If you're bringing kids with you, they have a nature museum in the barn. There's so much to see there, and they have activities and prizes for the kids. We go all over the place with our kids, and inevitably, someone is always bored. ugh. I was floored when we visited their museum, because every single one of my kids--5, 8, 11 and 13--found something to do there that interested them. We spent a good 90 minutes just hanging out there and learning new things. It's run by a dedicated and very approachable former teacher and some wonderful volunteers who loves to share their knowledge with kids and adults alike.

Here are a bunch more pictures I took at Gould's Orchard, because it seems a waste to just let them sit there on my hard drive, never to see the light of day.

As you can see, they also have some cute gifts and locally made products for sale.

Now for the apple crisp! I combined two recipes to make this one. Some of you may remember my ugly, yet so delicious apple pie. I knew I wanted a lot of cinnamon in this crisp, so I immediately went for that filling, from Ann Hodgman in her Beat This! cookbook. That one and Beat That! are two of my favorite cookbooks. Ann has a great sense of humor, and these two books are fun to read cover to cover. I adapted her apple pie filling and her apple crisp topping to come up with this one.

I used 12 apples and got a good sized 9x13 pan full of apples. And by the way, if you make a lot of apple desserts, or even if you make one apple dessert a year that takes 12 apples, you should invest in one of these Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer gadgets. Mine isn't from Pampered chef, but if you're going to get one, get one that clamps on to your counter like that one, not the kind with the pencil sharpener suction cup that never works. You put your apple on the torturous looking prongs, turn the crank, and in seconds, your apple is peeled, cored, and sliced into a long spiral. Run a knife down through the apple after removing it, and you've got perfect apple slices. It's such a timesaver!

So between the topping and filling, there's 5 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon. Yes, really! Noooo, it's not too much--and don't be tempted to cut back the nutmeg, either. It can be overwhelming sometimes, but not in this. Really! And if I'd thought ahead, I'd have had some fresh whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, anything like that. But no, didn't have any. Damn. Ah well, it was good, just the same. And even better the next day, and the next day...

Cinnamon Overload Apple Crisp
Adapted from Beat This!

Topping

1 cup flour
2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 cup unsalted butter, melted

Filling

12 cups (about 12 apples) of your favorite baking apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced (see how that gadget would come in handy here?)
1 1/2 TBSP lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
4 1/2 TBSP cornstarch
3 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp nutmeg
3 TBSP unsalted butter

Heat oven to 375. In a medium bowl, combine all the dry topping ingredients. Add the melted butter, stir until crumbly, and set aside.

Put the apples in a large bowl and toss with the lemon juice. In a smaller bowl, combine the remaining filling ingredients, mixing the butter in with your fingertips until the mixture is crumbly.

Stir the spice mixture into the apples and combine the two, then pour the apples into a lightly greased 9x13 pan. Pat the topping over the apples and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Serve with fresh whipped cream or ice cream.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

What to do when you make an ugly apple pie...

Serve it in a glass!

I had such high hopes. I really did. I've only made two pies from scratch in my lifetime, crust included. They were both tasty, but unfortunately, not pretty. And I know--looks aren't everything. But still, I wanted to make a pretty pie. I'm just going to have to keep trying, I guess.

So anyway, trying to get a pretty and perfect slice out of a not so perfect pie was not happening. Next best thing? Throw it in a glass with some vanilla frozen yogurt and call it Apple Pie Parfait! Like they used to say (do they still, I wonder?) in the ads for gag and joke things in the back of comic books..."Fool Your Friends!"

This recipe is from one of my favorite cookbooks--Beat This, by Ann Hodgman. It's Classic Apple Pie, but I'm renaming it Triple Cinnamon Apple Pie. It's a triple threat with cinnamon in the crust, the filling, and as a topping. The flavor is fabulous!

No, I didn't use a whole stick of Crisco!

Triple Cinnamon Apple Pie
makes 1 - 9 inch pie

Pastry:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
1/4 cup shortening
5 tbsp ice water
1 tsp vanilla extract

Filling:
3 pounds Granny Smith apples (8 cups worth), peeled, cored and sliced
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
3 tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 nutmeg
2 tbsp unsalted butter

Topping:
milk for brushing over crust
1 tbsp sugar mixed with 1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 cups pie weights (or dry beans or dry rice)

Prepare the pastry!

Stir the dry ingredients together, or add them to the bowl of your food processor and pulse to mix.
Cut the butter into smaller pieces and add them and the shortening to the dry stuff, or mix in with a pastry cutter until it resembles coarse meal.
Add the ice water and vanilla and process until a dough forms, or if not using a food processor, mix with a fork until the dough comes together.
Divide the dough into two portions--one slightly larger than the other. Press each into a disk about one inch thick, wrap in plastic and stick them in the fridge to chill for at least 1/2 hour.

Now don't sit there admiring the cinnamony dough you just made! Get to work on the filling!

Preheat oven to 350°.
Put your prepared apples in a large bowl and toss with the lemon juice.
In a separate smaller bowl, mix to combine the dry filling ingredients.
Now this is very important, so pay attention. When making fruit pies, unless your specifically told to, do NOT mix the fruit with the dry ingredients until just before you fill the pie crust. If you do, may God have mercy on your soul.
And your pie.
The fruit will do it's thing when you mix it with other stuff, and it'll get all juicy.
This translates to a soggy pie.
(Did this intelligent tidbit of pie making advice come from me? Hell no! This is the author's advice, of course.)
So leave the two separate bowls alone until you're ready to fill the crust.

Butter the bottom and sides of a 9 inch deep dish pie plate.
Flour your rolling surface and roll out the smaller dough disk until it's a 12 inch circle (Or if you're like me, a shape that resembles a foreign country, not a circle, and is "slightly" (term used very loosely) larger than 12 inches.)
Line the pie plate with the dough, trim the messy edges (As if we'd have messy edges, right? Who, me?), and chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.
Butter a piece of foil and place it butter side down in your chilled bottom crust.
Fill with 2 cups of pie weights, dry beans or rice.
Bake this on a cookie sheet for 20 minutes.
Transfer to a cooling rack, remove the foil and weights and let the crust cool slightly.

While it's cooling, roll out the other dough disk to (hopefully) a circle about 13 inches in diameter.
Let it sit for a second.
Now you have permission to mix the apples and the other dry filling ingredients, except the 2 tbsp butter.
Working quickly, pile the apples into the bottom crust.
You should have a mountain of apple slices.
Dot the apples with little chunks of that butter. Now is the tricky part.

LOOK at all the cinnamon on those apples. It's almost illegal how much cinnamon there is.

Top the apples with the top crust, and crimp it to the bottom crust.
Why is this tricky?
Well, besides the scary "how in the hell am I going to get this crust up off the counter and on to the pie" moments, unbaked crust doesn't really want to stick to baked crust.
But do your best, because if I can get it to crimp, anyone can.
And I did.
And no filling leaked out and all over my oven. Whew! It's the little things that make me happy, really.

Trim off any ragged edges (Ok, I had a LOT) and cut about 4 oval shaped slits in the crust to let steam out during baking. Make sure they're big enough to stay opened as the crust bakes and expands. (More author advice there.)

Quickly brush the top crust with milk, and sprinkle all of that delicious cinnamon and sugar over the top.
Bake the pie in the lower half of your oven on a cookie sheet for one hour. (Ann says to bake on the bottom rack, but I baked one up from that. I know my oven, and it gets all pissy when I put things on the bottom rack, and then it burns them as a nice payback.)
The cookie sheet concentrates the heat to the bottom of the pie tin, helping to make the bottom crust flakier.

After one hour, transfer the pie and cookie sheet to the middle rack and bake for 10 more minutes.

Allow to cool slightly before slicing.

So if any of you decide to try this pie--and I hope you do, it's really that good--I hope it looks prettier for you. But if not, scoop out some of it and toss it in a pretty glass with ice cream and make Apple Pie Parfait. I'm sure whoever you serve it to won't be worried about what happened to the pie.

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