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How Do You Like Them Apples?

10/20/2015

7 Comments

 
About 10 years ago, we put an addition on our house. This scrawny, 3-foot-tall apple sapling was in the way, so the contractors dug it up and relegated it to the trash heap.  We rescued it and lovingly replanted it in a sunny spot in front of the house. The next year it was a little taller, and a couple of years later, it actually bore fruit (about six little apples). Fast forward to this year, and we are knee-deep in organic apples from the 9-foot tall tree we've named Frankie. I like to think she's giving back because she's so happy to have been saved.

I have 6 bushels packed away to store for the winter; I've made 10 pints of applesauce and enough filling for 5 apple pies; have given away apples to friends and the local soup kitchen; and I still have 3 or 4 bushels to do what with? Apple-ginger chutney? More pies? Apple clafoutis...definitely yes. And maybe even some apple butter.
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Applesauce

This is so easy to make and freeze.

Apples
Water to cover
Honey, optional ( if your apples are very sweet, you may not need additional sweetener)

1. Core apples, but do not peel (you'll get a lovely pink sauce from red apples). Cut into chunks.
2. Put apples in large pot and add water to just cover the fruit.
3. Bring to a boil and simmer until apples are soft.
4. Put apples through a food mill and discard the peels.
5. Taste applesauce and add a little honey if you think it needs sweetening.
6. Pour into wide-mouthed freezer jars to fill-line and freeze. Enjoy with a roast chicken or turkey this winter.

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As Easy as Pie... Not!

O.K., the filling is easy, but more about that in a minute. I have been making the delicious Double Crust Apple Pie from Lisa Yockelson's book, Country Pies, since 1988, when the book was published. No, I take that back: I have been making the filling from this recipe since 1988 and then popping it between two ready-made, store-bought frozen pie crusts. They were good enough and, despite my many years in the kitchen, I was completely intimidated by pie crusts....especially since pie crusts made with lard had the reputation of being the best, and given my somewhat ambivalent relationship with pork (see Breakfast, Part 2, below)...Anyway, true confessions: Before I switched to Paleo, I don't remember ever making a pie crust. But now, if I want pie, I have to.

The pie crust recipe I like the best is the one with a lattice crust from Gather: The Art of Paleo Entertaining, by Haley Mason and Bill Staley. I've made a couple of changes, though, substituting palm sugar for maple sugar and lard (yes, lard) for palm shortening. So, just so you should know from the get-go, this pie crust is a pain in the butt to make...and one of the most delicious pie crusts ever, Paleo or no. Probably because I used lard that was room temperature, I had to use a ton of arrowroot, a lot of which ended up on my kitchen counters and floor, and dogs do not clean up spilled arrowroot off the floor the way they clean up say, spilled turkey gravy or ice cream. The dough was not very stiff, so making a lattice top crust was out of the question. The strips I cut looked like a kindergartner had snipped them with plastic scissors. So, I abandoned the lattice and used a cookie cutter to cut out dough flowers for the top, instead. They don't exactly look like flowers, but I think the pie looks kind of rustic. The important thing, though, is that it tastes fabulous. So, come Thanksgiving, I'll roll up my sleeves, do some yoga breathing, and tackle this pie again.

Now, about that easy filling: one of the things I did with our apple bounty was to make enough filling for six pies and then freeze the filling in aluminum pie tins, and then put the filled tins in freezer bags. When it was time to bake the pie, I just popped the frozen filling into the partially-baked crust, no need to defrost it. This is a handy hint from Janet Chadwick's book, The Beginner's Guide to Preserving Food at Home. Of course, you can also make the filling fresh.

Filling (adapted from Country Pies)

1 TBS plus 1 1/2 tsp arrowroot powder
2/3 cup palm (coconut) sugar
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
4 cups peeled, sliced apples (about 5 large apples), tossed in 1 TBS fresh lemon juice

1. Combine arrowroot, palm sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl. Add apples and toss (filling may be frozen at this point if you are not going to use it right away).

Crust (adapted from Gather: The Art of Paleo Entertaining)

3 cups blanched almond flour
1 1/4 cup arrowroot, plus more for dusting (lots more, trust me)
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup palm sugar
1 TBS vanilla extract
1/2 cup lard (I use Fatworks Pure Lard, ordered online. If you don't want to use lard, you can use the same amount of palm shortening. The recipe from Gather calls for melting the shortening, but I would use the lard at room temperature or cold)
2 eggs, whisked
1 egg white for wash on top of the pie
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1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Combine almond flour, arrowroot, salt, baking soda and palm sugar in a bowl.
3. Add vanilla and lard and mix in.
4. Add whisked eggs and combine.
5. Make a ball out of the dough and add arrowroot as needed to make it "rollable".
6. Lay out parchment paper and dust with arrowroot. Place dough on paper, dust with more arrowroot and cover with another piece of parchment paper. Roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thick.
7. Remove top piece of parchment paper. Place the pie pan upside down on the rolled-out dough and cut around the rim of the pan, leaving half an inch of extra dough. Remove the excess dough and use for topping.
8. Carefully turn over the pan with the dough--it will sink into the pan. If you need to make repairs, you can use some of the excess dough. Crimp the edge of the crust.
9. Prick the dough several times with a fork, and bake crust for 15 minutes.
10. While it is baking, roll out the remaining dough, using the same method as in Step 6, above. Cut shapes out with cookie cutter.
11. Remove crust from oven and fill with fresh or frozen pie filling.
12. Carefully place cut out dough on top of the filling, with pieces overlapping each other (don't worry if they break, you can always roll and cut them out again)
13. Brush top of pie with egg white, put back in the oven, and bake 15-20 minutes until crust is golden brown. Cool on wire rack.

                  Whew! It took me most of the afternoon, including washing the floor and counters. But so, so good. My husband and I ate 1/3 of the pie the first night, and finished it off the next two nights. We did not even share it with the dogs...we were so greedy!
7 Comments
Linda Dickey
10/22/2015 03:43:14 pm

That pie looks divine! I'm wondering what arrowroot is, Deb? Is it like cornstarch? I've been making apple crisp w/streusel made of cup-4-cup flour (gluten free), butter, brown sugar, and gluten-free cornflakes, and it's pretty good. The cornflakes make it crunchy. But I MISS pie!

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Deborah Shepherd link
10/28/2015 02:48:19 pm

Arrowroot is made from South American tubers like tapioca. I also use it as a substitute for cornstarch to thicken gravies, etc. It is Paleo and works for me. Do try the pie when
you get a chance. Since you can practically make a pie crust in your sleep, it will probably be much easier for you. You don't have to deal with the intimidation factor :-)

Reply
Sydney
10/30/2015 09:26:28 am

Deborah

I love the way you tell your story. I grew up using lard to make pies, but I stopped using it in the late 60s because my father ( a doctor) told me about cholesterol. I then switched to Crisco which I really hated because it has so little flavor. Now I use half Crisco and half butter (I freeze the shortening before using it) which means I am getting back to the cholesterol. I can attest that lard does indeed make the best flavored pie crust although the butter/shortening mix is a very good second. Now I have two questions. Do you make your own almond flour? When you make your crust with the arrowroot, do you use a food processor or do it by hand? Two years ago, I saw an old Julia Child show where she was using a food processor to make her pie dough. I had been making my pie dough by hand but figured that if Julia Child used a mixer or food processor to make pie dough, it was okay for me to do it too. I was really surprised at how good it comes out. I also make rounds of the dough, wrap it, and put it in the refrigerator for a few hours before rolling it out. I have kept dough in the refrigerator in this way (in a plastic bag) for up to two weeks. Perhaps, this is a gluten thing - refrigerating the dough and would not work with arrowroot and almond flours. It does dry out a week or so, but is still pliable and makes a fine pie. I use a mix of flours, unbleached and oat, as well as hemp and chia seeds, and flax meal in my pie dough. I know you can't use the flours, but the seeds do add a nice nutty flavor to the crust as almond flour does.

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Deborah link
11/2/2015 05:07:13 pm

I don't make my own almond flour...I use Bob's Red Mill. I made the pie crust by hand, not in the food processor, but I think you're right: If it's good enough for Julia, it will be good enough for me! I'll try it next time. I'll also refrigerate the dough, per your advice, but not for two weeks, because I'm afraid I would forget all about it and it would disappear into the black hole of my refrigerator,only to reappear when I clean out the fridge..."what the hell was this?"

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Sydney
11/3/2015 07:31:51 am

Hey Deb

The gluten-free dough may not act in the same fashion as regular flour. It can't hurt to try it, though. Maybe using a food processor would prevent some of the arrowroot flying around.

Sydney

Reply
Deborah link
11/23/2015 06:13:08 am

I'm going to bake my Thanksgiving pies tomorrow, Sydney, following your advice. Thanks!

Deborah link
12/2/2015 05:28:22 am

hey, Sydney, it worked! Made the pie crust in the food processor. No mess in the kitchen!

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      Deborah Shepherd

    New recipes and Paleo adaptations of family favorites I've been cooking for years that I hope will work for all of us, whether Boomers or beyond.

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