Posts tagged with "pie" - Faerye Net

New pie (with recipe): Sea Salt Caramel Apple Custard

2014-01-27T00:44:14+00:00

I invented a pie! This is, I believe, the first time I’ve done this. (I’ve invented several savory pies, but ‘pie’ to me means sweet — sorry, I am an American that way.)

A few days ago, I made an Oregon Hazelnut Caramel Pie for Ryan (the decoration makes sense if you consider he rescued me from a dead car battery situation earlier in the week.) Since I habitually make pie crust in batches of two, this left me with a single crust to fill. I thought I’d make something I could actually eat. Hazelnuts smell like heaven, but could actually transport me to an anaphylactic afterlife.

I’ve been thinking about coming up with a salted caramel apple pie for a while. I adore salted caramel with a ridiculous, crooning love, apple pie is my favorite food, and “caramel apple” is a time-tested taste combo. However, I don’t so much…make caramel. Well, I tried once to make caramel sauce, as a spur of the moment thing. I made hard candy — very, very hard. This hazelnut pie I’d just made, however, gets to call itself caramel without any crazy candymaking step — and the science backs it up, since it’s baked at 350 degrees.

So I bought a few tart apples and got crazy. Sure, I could have looked up an actual caramel apple pie recipe — there’s one with pecans I could have modified to hypoallergenic in my adored pie cookbook, not too many pages from the hazelnut recipe! But I was feeling wild and reckless and gripped by the urge to create.

This pie uses a modified version of the custard from the Oregon Caramel-Coffee Hazelnut pie in Haedrich’s book, but uses apples instead of nuts and has a salt/sugar topping of my own creation.

Sea Salt Caramel Apple Custard Pie

Ingredients:
One single crust pie pastry in a 9 inch standard pie plate (partially prebaked if you’re fussy.)

Filling:
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter, melted
3 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2-3 Granny Smith Apples

Topping:
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2.5 tsp coarse-grained sea salt*
2 Tbsp salted butter, at room temperature (or melted)

*If you want it a little less salty, I’d try 2 tsp. Also, I don’t know how coarse sea salt gets — mine is La Baleine ‘coarse’, and it’s medium-sized flakes, not rock salt or anything.)

Instructions:
Do this first: Put out butter and eggs to warm. Prebake pie shell if desired. Reduce oven temp to 350°.

1. Whisk together brown sugar, butter, eggs, corn syrup, cinnamon and vanilla in a large bowl.

2. Peel and slice apples into wedges (I aimed for 3/4 inch wide — wouldn’t want to go under half-inch, since they get pretty soft as it is). 2 large Granny Smiths was plenty for me, even being a little picky about shapes of slices, but if you aren’t trying for a rosette, you could fit more!

3. Arrange apple slices in cooled pie shell. Pour custard mixture over. (“Standard” pie pans vary, so you may have a little left over.)

4. Bake 25 minutes at 350°. Turn pie 180 degrees and bake 15 minutes more.

5. Meanwhile, mix sugar, salt and cinnamon by hand in a small bowl, eliminating sugar clumps for even mixture. Add butter and rub together.

6. Remove pie from oven. By now, the apple-custard surface should be mostly gelatinous, if not solid in parts. Sprinkle your topping mixture over the top of the pie, concentrating on the apple slices.

7. Bake another 10-20 minutes or until center of custard no longer moves in waves when you poke the edge of the pan with your mitt (in my oven, another ten minutes on top of what I’ve suggested.)

8. Cool thoroughly — I ate mine refrigerated the next day, but some people like custard pie at room temperature!

I found it very sweet, but complicated, with the apple very well cooked so it matched the custard texture. There is quite a bit of salt, but I like that to counteract the sweetness — and I would not use any apple sweeter than a Granny Smith!

If I do any more variations, I’ll add the results here!

NB: I’m calling it “sea salt” because that’s what I used, and because if there’s a phrase that causes me to Pavlovianly buy ice cream faster than “salted caramel”, it’s “sea salt caramel”. If I’ve abused the phrase, I’m sorry — it started it.

Thanksgivering

2010-11-29T13:35:34+00:00

I only made four pies this year! I am such a slacker. Although I note that since we had our Thanksgiving gathering on Saturday rather than Thursday, my not posting the pie pics prior should not be proposed as part and parcel of my procrastination.

Maple Custard Pie, photographed by Ryan. Pumpkin in background. Pecan lurks.

As ever, the maple custard pie comes to us via Ken Haedrich’s Pie: 300 Tried-And-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie. Long may it reign!

Peaches and Cream Pause

2010-09-28T16:11:36+00:00

I forgot to show you guys this pie I made. Look, a pie!

Peaches and Cream Pie

As usual, this pie is from Ken Haedrich’s Pie: 300 Tried-And-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie. I made it with a mix of white and gold peaches. Unlike many of the pies I make from that book, it was rather easy. Unlike most of the pies I make, I didn’t get to taste it: the recipient ate it too fast. From this and other indications, I conclude that it was good!

It's always time for pie!

2010-07-29T10:21:44+00:00

Here’s my latest pie, a Lattice-Top Deep-Dish Sour Cherry Pie from Ken Haedrich’s Pie: 300 Tried-And-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie.

This is my first cherry pie! I’d meant to make a Rainier Cherry pie, but it’s a little late in the season now — my local grocery has a few, but not enough for a pie. Instead I perused the stalls at my local farmer’s market and bought these locally grown pie cherries. No verdict yet on the taste — the recipe calls for 1.25 cups of sugar plus three tablespoons and I forgot the tablespoons — but it looks pretty good.

Update: Ryan has spoken. The pie is good!

Fruits of the Forest Pie

2010-07-12T13:54:23+00:00

In Ken Haedrich’s Pie: 300 Tried-And-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie, he guesses that the name “Fruits of the Forest Pie” originally applied to a mixed-nut pie, since nuts do actually come from the forest. At some point the name inspired mixed fruit pies, too.

Since I’m allergic to tree nuts, the idea of a mixed nut pie is frightening: I can just handle making, say, a pecan pie for my dad, or a hazelnut pie for Ryan, but multiple types of nuts at once? What if while I’m watching one type of nut, the other two flank me, like in Jurassic Park? Mixed fruit pie doesn’t inspire these delusional ramblings, so that’s what I’ve made:

Fruits of the Forest Pie with coarse sugar glaze

The crust is, as usual, from the family recipe, while the glaze and filling are Haedrich-approved. The filling includes apple, pear, peaches, blueberries, strawberries and pineapple. Won’t find all those in any forest near you.

How I spent my Independence Day Vacation

2010-07-05T21:24:39+00:00

Photo by Ryan, who very rightly notes that the vanilla cream pie on the right (the others are Strawberry Chiffon and apple) has blue filling. For the patriotism. The gooey, gooey patriotism.

Yet more pie

2010-05-30T12:48:39+00:00

Apricot-Mango Pie with Coconut Topping

There’s real content a-brewing (one small bit later today, in fact), but until then, let me show you what else I’ve been doing. Crust from the family recipe, filling & topping from Ken Haedrich’s Pie: 300 Tried-And-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie. Ryan informs me that the topping is scrumptious but the filling is a bit too tart. I have yet to make my own investigations. Have to run!

Mrrfl Pie

2010-05-09T13:11:58+00:00

Homemade pie for…some month…is Strawberry Chiffon Pie.

This is made from frozen strawberries and lemonade, with a chocolate wafer crumb crust and fresh berry garnish. It comes from Ken Haedrich’s Pie: 300 Tried-And-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie, which is the pie book to end all pie books. I say that without reading any other pie books, but I’m pretty comfortable putting it out there.

Pie of an unnamed month

2010-02-14T23:03:28+00:00

I’m not behind at all. I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cream Pie

Like most of my Homemade Pie of the Month entries, I made this from a recipe in Ken Haedrich’s Pie: 300 Tried-And-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie. It has Nutty Graham Cracker Crust made with peanuts!

December Pie

2010-01-18T14:27:44+00:00

I noticed it’s been a long time since I posted photos of my monthly piemaking. Now, there’s been no groundswell of public protest to this pie paucity, and for all I know my readers are sitting at home rejoicing that they don’t have to look at my pies every month. But I have no data either way, and besides, it’s my website. I’ll boast if I want to.

Here is, ahem, December’s pie. Since obviously I made it last month, I must have been delaying this post for a long time! Look at those Christmas decorations! That’s an old picture!

Chocolate Cream Pie with Cinnamon Meringue

This pie, like most of my Homemade Pie of the Month entries, is made from a recipe in Ken Haedrich’s Pie: 300 Tried-And-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie.

This is the last pie of 2009, but I gave Ryan another round of Homemade Pie of the Month for this year. So you may have to endure more of these posts.