Dessert Day - pie edition

Monday in Melbourne was Labour Day. And to honour all those who stood up and complained that working more than eight hours a day is a suckfest, we had a day off. WHEEEEEEEEEE. Obviously, said day off led to to the making of Dessert Day plans.

Perhaps the most significant revolutionary event to happen at Dessert Day was that Deidre and I decided to revolutionise the way in which we select which movie to watch. Prior to now, we've had a "watch all the things that we collectively own by one actor" approach, which means that the last...three? four?? Dessert Days have been accompanied by the works of Hugh Grant. But NOW? We're going to play a game of leapfrog, where we pick one actor from the previous movie and watch something else that they're in. As a result our viewing will now look something like this:

Two Weeks Notice (Monday's selection) --> The Proposal --> 27 Dresses --> Enchanted --> Sweet Home Alabama --> Legally Blonde.

Etcetera.

ANYWAY. We decided to make gluten free apple pie, on account of Deidre and Inspector Climate recently went to Tasmania, and he tortured her by eating apple pie that she couldn't have on account of gluten. Plus, everybody loves pie.

Too right, Dean. Also, source.

We used Smitten Kitchen's all butter pastry recipe, but made it in the food processor because we're lazy time was at a premium. We made it exactly as per the instructions in the book, using White Wings gluten free flour (by weight, not cup measurements) and drizzling the water in slowly, as gluten free flour often doesn't need as much liquid (which proved to be the case here).

Once the pastry was in the fridge thinking about what it had done, we set to work preparing the apples. Smitten Kitchen's recipe for deep dish apple pie (which I can't link to because it's only in her recipe book) required five pounds of apples. We decided against using the springform tin and crumbly/streusel-y topping in favour of a pie that had a full pastry lid, and we adjusted the amount of apples accordingly. We started with somewhere around the 1.75kg mark, and 1.5kg probably would have been about right as it turned out.

We broke out a peeler, corer and slicer that Deidre and Inspector Climate received as a wedding present, which was both terrifying and excellent. I suspect we would still be peeling and slicing apples otherwise...

How the apples came out of the magical doohickey.

From there, we mixed the apple slices with the juice of one lemon, 100g of sugar, 30g of flour, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and a decent sprinkling of cinnamon. Then we rolled out the dough for the base (read: mostly Deidre. I suck at dough rolling. It always ends up totally wonky shapes) and flipped it into the pan. Once we'd done that, it was starting to get pretty soft, so we chucked it back in the fridge for five minutes to firm up a little.

It looked pretty promising once it came out again. Then we filled it and it looked even MORE promising:

And then we rolled out the lid, put that on, and added some decoration and an egg wash so it would brown nicely:

We also had enough apples left over to fill three ramekins, although not enough pastry to make lids for them. So we just cut out shapes instead and placed them randomly over the top. Then it was into the oven at 180 degrees C for half an hour, followed by a further hour at a little over 160 degrees C. An hour and a half (and some Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock ridiculousness) later, we had a pie!

The recipe recommends letting it cool to lukewarm, then putting it in the fridge, but that was FAR too much waiting, considering we'd already waited an hour and a half. So we let it cool for as long as it took to watch an episode of Will & Grace, and then cut into it.

It wasn't pretty, but it was DELICIOUS. The pastry was nice and flakey and the apple wasn't too sweet (the original recipe said 200g of sugar for 5lb of apples. We used 100g for a little under 4lb). In the future, I'd probably add some nutmeg and a pinch each of allspice and cloves just to give it that extra-autumn-y flavour and smell.

In short, pie is delicious. And this will give you just enough time to get all your supplies together for Pi Day! YOU'RE WELCOME.

K xx

Dessert Day - oversized lemon edition

On Friday afternoon, Deidre and I met up with my IRL BFF, Char, for a spot of Dessert Day magic. Our first step was to source ingredients and, considering we'd taken over Char's parents' kitchen for the occasion, we headed out into the back garden to check the lemon tree. We came back in with the most ridiculous lemon any of us had ever seen:

It was absolutely ENORMOUS.

Anywho... Following a trip to the supermarket (and then another trip because we forgot to buy caster sugar. FAIL), we pressed on with the actual baking part. Our first challenge was to recreate a version of Deidre's wedding cake from this recipe. Except we decided that it wasn't sufficiently challenging, and that we needed to make a bunch of changes.

Obviously, we weren't about to make a tiered cake, because EFFORT. Instead, we decided to change things up a little and make one lemon cake and one raspberry cake. So we followed the recipe, except that we left out all the lemon-y stuff. We divided the batter into two equal parts, and added the following:

Cake 1
- 1/8 cup lemon juice
- 1 large pinch lemon zest
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

Cake 2
- 1/8 cup raspberry coulis (cook 1/2 cup raspberries with a couple of teaspoons of caster sugar for a couple of minutes, then push through a sieve and allow it to cool)
- 1/2 teaspoon raspberry extract

While the cakes were in the oven, we made the lemon curd exactly as it appears in the recipe. Except, you know, the eggy version not the vegan version. Because the vegan version sounds DISGUSTING and I suspect it would result in something that looked a lot like lemon flavoured snot... *gags repeatedly*

I split the cakes, which caused rather a large amount of stress, and then we pressed on with making the frosting. We decided that it might end up too overwhelmingly lemon-y if we used the frosting from the recipe, so we used the basic butter, sugar, milk and salt quantities it lists, and then just added a teaspoon or so of vanilla extract. It was pretty amazing, I have to say.

The assembly process was MUCH more straightforward than the chequerboard cake - we alternated layers of cake and put about 1/3 of the lemon curd between each layer. Then we smothered the whole lot in frosting. There was a reasonable amount of frosting left over, and the cake looked a little plain. So we added the leftover raspberry coulis to it, and I grabbed the piping bag and went to town!

It was pretty fabulous cake. It doesn't taste or look like it's gluten free, and the frosting didn't make it soggy, which is sometimes a problem when it comes to gluten free stuff. Plus, it got the seal of approval from two of Char's younger brothers, so it must have been rather spectacular! I think in future though, I might stick with straight lemon and some kind of cream cheese frosting. Or straight raspberry with coulis or jam in between the layers and the vanilla frosting we used here. It was amazing, but there were so many flavours going on that it was all a little overwhelming.

Our second recipe for the day was these apple fritters. We followed the recipe exactly, except that it turns out that one and a half apples was enough to give the required quantity. Which was a bit of a bummer because we'd already peeled three apples. Womp womp.

These were completely fabulous, but I strongly recommend using a candy thermometer to check the temperature of the oil - the first lot we did ended up too brown on the outside and not quite cooked in the middle. But once the oil had cooled down a bit, they came out perfectly!

Conclusions?
Cake: Would definitely make again but with some alterations to give a more uniform flavour.
Fritters: Would definitely make again, but would double the recipe so that there are more delicious tiny doughnuts in my life.
Giant lemon: Completely delicious, unlike most oversized fruits.
Things I would change next time: Being insanely awkward when one of Char's brothers came home while she was out buying sugar, because OBVIOUSLY it would have been the only one of her brothers who wouldn't recognise me...
Deep frying: Not nearly as terrifying as last time.
Splitting cakes: Forever terrifying.

So. Would you take the lemon option, the raspberry option, or the All the Flavours option?? I need opinions so I know what to make next time!

K xx

Experiment 1, Part 3 - pie assembly

Aaaaaaaand moving on to part 3 - assembling the pie. Now before we get started, my friend Erin was up from Melbourne the night I made this, and came over for dinner, and I forgot to take photos at a couple of points. So you'll just have to use your imagination.

Take the pastry out of the fridge, and cut it in half. I figured I'd make one half slightly bigger than the other, given that it had to cover the base AND the sides of the pie dish, rather than just the top...

Now, roll the pastry out with the rolling pin. And pretend there's photos of the pastry being rolled out, cos I didn't realise until after I put the pastry in the pie dish. Whoops... Anyway, roll the pastry out between sheets of baking paper. And allow me to strongly NOT recommend using Woolies brand baking paper - it's really...waxy...and it doesn't stay in place when you try and roll out the pastry. Aaaaaaaaaaanyway... Roll it out large enough to cover the base and sides of a 25cm pie dish, and place it into the dish. Run a knife around the top of the dish to even out the pastry.

Yes, I had a couple of spots that needed mending with extra pastry. It's only the base. It didn't matter much. Anyway. Then dump the filling into the pastry. And brush the edges with the egg white you saved from part 1 - this is the point where I realised that I STILL don't own a pastry brush. It's okay - I bought one last weekend for $4. Woohoo - no more glazing things with a teaspoon!!

Roll out the other half of the pastry, again between two sheets of baking paper.

Lift the pastry onto the top of the pie dish. I pinched it around the edges, then made the decoration using a heart shaped stencil, because it was pretty much the only thing I had in the cupboard. It kind of looked like a shamrock, I think... Then glaze the top with more egg white. I have to say, glazing a pie with a teaspoon is freaking hard. I'm glad I don't have to do it again any time soon!!

Having just reread the recipe again, it appears I was meant to sprinkle the top with 1 tablespoon of caster sugar. Whoops. Oh well. Next time, I'll make sure to read the recipe properly... But frankly, I don't think it mattered much.

Stick the pie in the oven at 220 degrees for 20 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 180 degrees, and cook for a further 25 minutes.

As you can see, glazing with a teaspoon doesn't exactly result in an even glaze...

Here's the inside of the pie:

Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum:

Serve on its own, or with cream, or with ice cream! It's delicious whatever you do.

Here endeth experiment 1. Next up, experiment 2 - baking with yeast!

K :) xx

Experiment 1, Part 2 - pie filling

Right, let's move onto part 2 - the filling of the pie! Here's what you'll need. Not particularly complicated, is it?!

Start by putting 1/2 cup of water into a large saucepan.

Then peel the apples - you'll need ten of them.

Quarter them, core them, and dice them:

10 apples results in a lot of cores...

Dump the apples in on top of the water.

Then put the lid on the pot and simmer the apples for about 5 minutes, or until they're tender. I probably overdid it a little bit, because I got distracted playing with my zester!

While the apples are doing their thing, place 1/4 cup of caster sugar in a mixing bowl.

Then add 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon:

And grab your Microplane zester. Okay, any zester will do. I just like gloating about mine... ;)

Zest the lemon.

Mmmmm, zesty bokeh...

I tried running the zester over the lemon rather than the lemon over the zester - apparently that's the way Microplane zesters are MEANT to be used. But frankly, I find the other way neater and easier. Although it *does* mean you don't have to scoop up the zest because it's just nicely sat in the back of the zester. Catch-22, methinks...

Add a teaspoon of lemon zest to the cinnamon and sugar. I had a little bit extra, so I dumped it in anyway.

When the apples are tender, drain them and discard the liquid. It's amazing how much liquid comes out of apples when they cook...

And then dump the apples in with the sugar mixture, and mix it through. This smells so freaking good...

And leave the apple mixture aside to cool - that's all there is to the filling!! It's pretty damned easy really - the only tough/time consuming part is peeling and chopping the 10 apples!

Next up, pie assembly........

K :) xx

Experiment 1, Part 1 - pie crust

My week of unexpected leave is over, and it's back to the daily curatorial grind - starting with reborrowing all 20-odd of my library books when the museum library reopens tomorrow. I'm foreseeing several trips down the corridor for that one... Anyway, I managed to conquer all three of my nemeses. Okay, more like two and a half - I only tried the cake decorating on cupcakes, not on a full scale cake. But I figure I've done enough that when I next make a cake, I'll be able to do it justice!

Anyway, let's start at the beginning - apple pie. Due to the number of photos, I'll be doing this in three parts. Let's start with making the pie crust.

Here's what you'll need. And yes, I do my capital Fs backwards. Don't judge me! ;) :

Start by putting 1 cup of plain flour and 1/2 cup of self raising flour into your handy dandy food processor. I love this baby. It makes life soooo much easier. I have no doubt that if I'd had to make my pastry by hand, it wouldn't have turned out anywhere near as well!

Add 1/4 cup of cornflour:

And 1/4 cup of custard powder:

And don't be disturbed when you bang the 1/4 cup measure in the sink, and this happens:

It's just the tartrazine and the sunset yellow in the custard powder coming out when you mix it with water...

Next, add 1 tablespoon of caster sugar. Or, if you're me, you read the recipe wrong, add 1/4 cup of caster sugar, and only realise a week and a half later when you check the recipe while writing the blog post. Whoops............. It didn't really make a difference though, in my opinion! It just needed a little more liquid.

Chop 100g of cold butter:

And add it to the food processor:

Pulse the mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs:

Then take the egg and a handy egg separator. Okay, so you *could* just do it between the halves of the shell. But I'm kind of uncoordinated. So an egg separator is a much better option...

Dump the egg into the separator. Save the white for later:

Aaaaand dump the yolk into the food processor with the dry ingredients:

Pulse the ingredients, then gradually add cold water until the ingredients just come together. The recipe says around 1/3 cup, but I found it took a little more than that - probably because of all that extra sugar........ :S

Form the dough into a ball, and dump it onto a floured surface. In this case, the bench.

Knead the dough until it's smooth - it didn't take very long. Only a couple of minutes.

These little bits of orange - courtesy of the tartrazine and sunset yellow - remind me of my gran. She used to make the most amazing yoyos, and they clearly had custard powder in them, because they always had little bits of orange in them too:

Once the dough is smooth, wrap it in Glad Wrap (cling film to the Poms and saran wrap to North Americans!), and stick it in the fridge for at least half an hour.

And that's it for making the pie crust! Next up, the filling...

K :) xx