Chief Longwind Of The North
Certified/Certifiable
Here's the scenario. I have to make enough apple pie for forty or more people at a church pot luck. I have ten Macintosh apples, sugar, lard, flour, salt, & spices. Now just how do you get 40 to 45 slices out of two pies (that's about what you'd get from 10 apples). Here's how I did it, and I got rave reviews. Though time intensive, the solution was simple. I made 45 mini-pies.
Ingredients:
10 Macintosh Apples
2 cups plus 1/2 cup sugar
1.5 tsp. salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 fresh nutmeg seed
5 tbs. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. mace
lard
1 cup cold water
Preheat oven to 400' F.
Peel, core, and finely dice apples into a bath of cold water
Combine the flour, 2 tbs. cinnamon, salt, and 1 cup sugar, whisking together. Grate the nutmeg into the flour mixture and again whisk together. Cut in 1 cup of lard or shortening. Add more lard as needed, cutting in thoroughly until you get the pea-gravel texture. Fold in the water, stirring just until the water is incorporated. Drain the diced apple and mix with the remaining sugar, cinnamon, and mace. Sprinkle the apple mixture with 1/2 cup of flour.
Remove a ball 2 inch ball of dough and flatten with hands. Lay on a well floured working surface and roll into a thin circle about 4 inches in diameter. Place a suitable dollop of the apple mixture onto the circle and fold the dough in half around in, pinching the ends to seal. Place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. When the sheet is full of your mini pies, or turn-overs, sprinkle sugar over them and bake in the oven for twenty minutes. Remove and let cool.
My cookie sheet will hold 20 mini pies, if placed in tight rows. So I was able to bake one batch while I continued folding pies for the 2nd batch. These were really popular at the pot luck. To make them prettier, you can brush one side with egg-wash before sprinkling with sugar.
Of course, you can use this technique to make pies with most any filling you want, including meat and veggies (aka mini-pasties), pizza filling, custards and puddings, various fruit fillings, even peanut butter and jelly if you choose. Think ham and cheese, all melted together and served hot.
Oh, one more thing. I had left-over filling. I just cooked it in a sauce pot until the apples were barely cooked. I had to add a bit of water to the mixture to keep it from thickening too much. I then poured my "applke pudding" into a suitable microwave safe caserole dish and covered with a mixture of rolled oats, flour, brown sugar, and butter (like for an apple crisp). I served that cold at the pot luck as well. Everyone thought it was a wonderful desert, not just a way to use up left-over apple pie filling. Serve with a little Chantilly Cream (sweetened vanilla whipped cream), or vanilla ice cream and your good to go.
Enjoy.
Oh, and one more thing; as many of you know, I had a miserable time for years trying to figure out how to get my apple pie filling to the right texture. Thanks to all of my DC freinds, I have taken the advice you gave me, worked with it, and now can make anything with apples that I can imagine. Now see what a great place this is?
Oh, and one more thing, my pie crust came out extremely light, flaky, and tender. And it was made with all room-temperature ingredients. The only cold thing I used was cold tap water to moisten the dough. Pie crust is really so easy once you get the hang of it. No need for chilling everything, or fussing about perfect measurements. Once you know what it's supposed to look like after the fat and flour are cut together, you can litterally throw toghether any amount of pie dough you need, with virtually no measuring. Really.
Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North
Ingredients:
10 Macintosh Apples
2 cups plus 1/2 cup sugar
1.5 tsp. salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 fresh nutmeg seed
5 tbs. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. mace
lard
1 cup cold water
Preheat oven to 400' F.
Peel, core, and finely dice apples into a bath of cold water
Combine the flour, 2 tbs. cinnamon, salt, and 1 cup sugar, whisking together. Grate the nutmeg into the flour mixture and again whisk together. Cut in 1 cup of lard or shortening. Add more lard as needed, cutting in thoroughly until you get the pea-gravel texture. Fold in the water, stirring just until the water is incorporated. Drain the diced apple and mix with the remaining sugar, cinnamon, and mace. Sprinkle the apple mixture with 1/2 cup of flour.
Remove a ball 2 inch ball of dough and flatten with hands. Lay on a well floured working surface and roll into a thin circle about 4 inches in diameter. Place a suitable dollop of the apple mixture onto the circle and fold the dough in half around in, pinching the ends to seal. Place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. When the sheet is full of your mini pies, or turn-overs, sprinkle sugar over them and bake in the oven for twenty minutes. Remove and let cool.
My cookie sheet will hold 20 mini pies, if placed in tight rows. So I was able to bake one batch while I continued folding pies for the 2nd batch. These were really popular at the pot luck. To make them prettier, you can brush one side with egg-wash before sprinkling with sugar.
Of course, you can use this technique to make pies with most any filling you want, including meat and veggies (aka mini-pasties), pizza filling, custards and puddings, various fruit fillings, even peanut butter and jelly if you choose. Think ham and cheese, all melted together and served hot.
Oh, one more thing. I had left-over filling. I just cooked it in a sauce pot until the apples were barely cooked. I had to add a bit of water to the mixture to keep it from thickening too much. I then poured my "applke pudding" into a suitable microwave safe caserole dish and covered with a mixture of rolled oats, flour, brown sugar, and butter (like for an apple crisp). I served that cold at the pot luck as well. Everyone thought it was a wonderful desert, not just a way to use up left-over apple pie filling. Serve with a little Chantilly Cream (sweetened vanilla whipped cream), or vanilla ice cream and your good to go.
Enjoy.
Oh, and one more thing; as many of you know, I had a miserable time for years trying to figure out how to get my apple pie filling to the right texture. Thanks to all of my DC freinds, I have taken the advice you gave me, worked with it, and now can make anything with apples that I can imagine. Now see what a great place this is?
Oh, and one more thing, my pie crust came out extremely light, flaky, and tender. And it was made with all room-temperature ingredients. The only cold thing I used was cold tap water to moisten the dough. Pie crust is really so easy once you get the hang of it. No need for chilling everything, or fussing about perfect measurements. Once you know what it's supposed to look like after the fat and flour are cut together, you can litterally throw toghether any amount of pie dough you need, with virtually no measuring. Really.
Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North
Goodweed I love you!
