From time to time I make pie, though as of late (the last year or so) I have been having a rough time with pie crust. Sometimes it would shrink too much while baking and other times it “melted” into a pool in the bottom of the pie plate. One occasion was so bad that I actually had to buy a frozen crust. Yes I admit it, I bought a pre-made pie crust. For those that know me you can understand the gravity of that statement, I pride myself on making things from scratch, but in this instance I was in a pinch. The pie turned out alright, luckily it was a pie that had a lot going on with the filling so the crust was merely a delivery method.

Last week I found Bubby’s Homemade Pies by Ron Silver and Jen Bervin on the New Book shelf at my library. It’s an entertaining read, one of the few books that I have actually read the introduction to. In addition to an illustrated primer on the basics they have some AMAZING recipes. I am pretty sure that Pumpkin Pie with Caramel Sauce and Candied Pecans as well as Apple Ginger Honey pie will be making an appearance at this years Thanksgiving. But this time I opted to stick to something a little more basic. Searching in the kitchen revealed some crisp slightly tart apples and my decision was made. I used the All Butter Pastry-Pie Dough recipe, just an everyday recipe, nothing notably different then others I have tried. The trick is to keep it cold. Which I know is nothing new, but even though it was a chilly day in my kitchen I kept placed the dough back in the refrigerator after every action. The results speak for themselves. Is it possible to have pie crust TOO flakey?

After chilling my dough I rolled it out into a rectangle and but it into four rectangles. I probably could have gotten six but I didn’t want to overwork the dough. I then place the dough in the fridge while I made the filling. I didn’t have a recipe, but just added what I usually do to apple pie.

1 crisp apple diced
2 T butter
pinch of salt
2-3 t cinnamon
1/4 t freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 ginger
2 T brown sugar
1-2 T flour

Put the butter in a small saucepan and heat till melted, add in the apple and cook still slightly softened. Then reduce heat to low and add the remaining ingredients. Stirring to combine. Let thicken slightly. Pull cut crusts out and proceed to dividing the filling between the pastry. Moisten the edges with water and fold over. Crimp the edges with a fork and brush the tops with an egg wash. I choose to then sprinkle the tops with some large granulated sugar. And don’t forget to use a sharp knife to vent the tops!

I put them back in the fridge for about 10 minutes before placing them in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes. They are done when the tops are beautifully brown and the edges look flakey. Make sure you let them cool so the filling sets up or else it will be runny!

Important note:: my oven is incredibly unreliable so your cooking time will probably differ!

So in the end I have learned a valuable lesson, always, ALWAYS keep the pie dough cold. Then only comment from Matt as he inhaled the handpies was that they could be a little sweeter! But all in all they were a success.

This past weekend I had a hankering to bake, I’ll blame it on the deliciously cool weather, and I decided to give the yeast breads a go. I have made bread before with varying degrees of success and but decided to try a new recipe this time. I did some searching and chose this recipe from allrecipes.com. If you have never visited allrecipes before it can come in handy, especially the search feature that lets you enter ingredients that you want (and those you don’t!) and it will search their database. I have gotten some great recipes that way. Anyway, I wanted to take the cinnamon bread to a few places in the morning and did not want to wake up at 6 am on a Saturday so the overnight aspect seemed perfect.

I made just a few adjustments to the recipe. I added a little vanilla to the eggs before I mixed them in. Who doesn’t like a hint of vanilla? I did have a little trouble with getting the milk the right temperature before adding the yeast to it. I thought I would be smart and use a thermometer, but realized I was reading the Celsius side at about the time it registered 150+ on the Fahrenheit side. But to my defense the Celsius was in red and my eye was just draw to it! The milk escaped un-scalded and then I went about trying to cool it so it wouldn’t hurt the yeast (which if you have never worked with before is a little fickle). It was a tedious process of switching containers and pulling in and out of the refrigerator. Finally it was cool enough to add the yeast and follow the recipe as directed.

I got a little nervous because after an hour the dough did not seem to have doubled, but I was getting tired of waiting and proceeded to shaping the dough. Since I was going to be delivering these to a couple shops downtown I didn’t think that a traditional cinnamon roll shape would be easy to eat so I opted to make a pull-a-part, something I had never tried before. After punching down the dough I split it in half and then kept splitting the dough until I had pieces about the size of an unshelled walnut. Then I dipped each in a bowl of melted butter and then coated it in the cinnamon and sugar mixture. Sidenote: I like to add extra spice, there never seems to be enough in a recipe. I also added a little bit of ground ginger and some freshly grated nutmeg. Then I placed the pieces in buttered dishes and put them in the refrigerator to rise overnight.

I was skeptical, but when I checked on them in the morning they had filled out the dishes nicely and I popped them into the preheated oven. I will say that they didn’t take a long as a standard cinnamon roll would to bake. So keep an eye on them! When they came out I immediately drizzled a quick icing (milk, powdered sugar and vanilla) over the top. The icing in the recipe didn’t seem appealing, corn syrup? no thanks!

I was happy with the result, they weren’t quite as gooey as I would have liked, but I think that will just take some adjusting with baking time and temp. And next time I might add a little cream cheese to the icing to cut the raw powdered sugar taste. All in all a successful dive back into baking and a relatively easy alternative to those canned cinnamon rolls that tempt you at the grocery store but you know don’t really taste good!