Apple and Pear Pie!

Why do Cakes get to reign over all the celebrations? Birthdays, Weddings, Retirement (?) Parties, Anniversaries, random holidays/events. Why don't any of the other baked goods get any of the glory? Aren't they just as good? Just as versatile? Hmm.. Maybe not, but I'm ready for the challenge. I challenge you, Cake, with Pie. One day I'll make pie versions of all your variations. Watch out!

I think the reason why pie isn't made as much in a household is cause they are so damn hard to make right! Think about what makes a perfect pie. It needs to have a flakey, beautiful, buttery crust, and a warm, attractive, gooey, not-too-sweet-with-just-the-right-combination-of-spices filling.

But how do you get it so that the insides don't overcook by the time the crust is done? Or so that the crust isn't still soggy by the time the filling is done? There are tons of ways people have come up with to solve this problem and as a result only more confusion when you're trying to combine all that information to make the perfect crust, which is what I tried to do.

In my first attempt, I didn't have enough filling (fruit cooks down a lot and in doing so, releases a lot of water, which leads to a soggy bottom crust), the crust I made, just terrible, I'm pretty sure it was undercooked.

Never the less, it was a good learning experience. I say if you think you've messed up, try to fix it up as best you can and bake it anyway to see what turns out. It's hard to say whether or not your baked good has turned out until after you bake it. Who knows, you might stumble upon something great.

So taking what I learned from my first attempt, I made a few adjustments to my second attempt. I used a simple recipe from my baking text book instead of trying to compose my own from my research. I did the same for the crust and used a smaller pie dish so that if it turned out badly, I wouldn't feel so bad about tossing the whole thing out. = / 

Unfortunately, I couldn't take many pictures of me making the dough. It's hard to take a picture when your hands are covered in flour and the dough does tend to be quite sticky. I think, pre-baked, It turned out pretty good. Here's the cross-section:

See the layers of butter and dough? That's what you need to get a nice flakey crust. If you've ever made your own pie dough, you'd know it's very difficult to work with. You really need to keep the dough cold. I decided to use butter in my dough instead of shortening just because it tastes better. I think I'll try shortening next time though because it's supposed to be more stable and easier to work with.

Remember to flour your surfaces before rolling out your dough, so it doesn't stick to your table or the rolling pin. I covered my table in plastic wrap so when I was done, I could just lift it up and throw it out. You also want to roll your dough out quite thin which is hard to do when your dough is so fragile. Remember: keep it cold so it's easier to work with.

I CAREFULLY placed my dough over my pie dish and gently pushed it in to the bottom and sides of the tin.

I docked the bottom with a fork so that there wouldn't be any air bubbles trapped down there.

Then I spooned in my filling. Here's how I made the filling:

1. Prep the apples and pears in this case cause I ran out of apples. I used Golden Delicious apples, which are firm enough to hold up to cooking and have nice tart apple flavour. I don't know what kind of pears these are though. Can anyone tell me? They're delicious and super sweet. Anjou Pears Thanks Nadia!

I sliced them quite thinly cause I wanted them to be soft in the pie and they would cook faster that way. You can squeeze a bit of lemon juice on them so that they don't brown.

2. Mise en place. Get all your ingredients pre-measured and ready to go, your sugar, butter, starch and spices.

3. Melt some butter to saultee your apples and add some sugar to draw out the juices.

 4. Add the starch to thicken the juices. Remember to mix your starch in a bit of water before you add it to the heat.

5. Take it off the heat and add a bit of butter and a bit more sugar and your spices. Stir until all the sugar is dissolved.

6. Let your filling cool completely before filling your pie crust. This is one of the many reasons, you'd get a soggy crust on your pie

I was more than a little disappointed at myself for not making enough filling for my first pie so with that in mind, I over-filled this one. It started spilling over the edges so I had to scoop some out. In the process. I got filling all over the edge of the pie dough. Because of that, I couldn't seal my crusts together = (

To seal the edges I used a fork to press down onto the dough and cut slits on the top to let some steam out. then trimmed the extra dough off.

I placed my pie on the lowest rack of my oven and baked until the crust was golden brown.... and then some. I really wanted to get the crust right. I didn't want an undercooked soggy bottom pie. So after the top was done, I turned the oven off and left it in there so that the residual heat could continue to gently cook the pie. And as you can see, my pie burst at the seams.

I took it into work this morning for my co-workers to try out. Result: Good! Even the crust! The crust was nice and buttery, though it could've been flakier. The filling, yummy. The pears add another level of sweetness. I love the graininess of pears, which I think transferred well into the pie. The tartness of the apples were a good counter to the sweet pears.

This was what was left after lunch:

Success =D

I think I could've done better on the crust but it feels good that I can make a viable pie. I can't wait to make some more pies, then maybe meat pies *drool*

Thanks to my new follower Nadia! I love the feedback so keep it coming. You shall be rewarded with... apple pie of course! =P