Learning 2 Bake from Scratch

Salted Caramel Apple Pie

This one didn’t get a number because I have no pictures and not too much to say. This is a Four And Twenty Blackbirds recipe. They (I made two) came out of the oven 10 minutes before we had to leave. No time for pictures. I let them cool in the car – it was literally freezing outside so that worked just fine.

My par/blind baked crusts have not been turning out as desired. This recipe did not call for that, so I thought I’d give it a whirl as-written and see what happened. I used a leaf cookie cutter to create the “lattice” on top. It was very pretty and the pastry was light and toasted. The bottom on the other hand. Ugh. Let me count bullet the ways…

• It glued to the bottom. I didn’t grease or flour the pan – all that butter dripping onto the bottom of my oven and smoking it up and it needs MOAR GREASE!?!
• It glued to the sides. I used the fluted, removable pie pans. They wouldn’t remove. This was mostly filling overflow. I used a knife to cut the sides off.
• It glued to itself. I don’t know how to describe the texture. It was stretchy and wet, but not exactly “soggy”. “Bread taffy” is not wrong. If you have trouble imagining that, think about how I felt eating it.

I can’t believe how easy it is to make pie crust and how difficult it is to bake it.

The other point worth mentioning: Don’t whisk caramel while it’s cooking. To be fair, the recipe said to whisk it when one adds the cream at the end. It did not say to whisk the boiling sugar/butter mixture. It crystalized (first time that’s happened to me). The butter separated out. I just kept toasting it hoping that adding the cream would reintegrate it, which it did. There were some crystalized chunks in it, but they were yummy so I decided that would be presented as by-design. I dread cleaning my stove today. There is boiled-over crystallized sugar all over it – and the outside of the saucepan, too. What a mess. I consider it a win that I didn’t burn myself. Boiling sugar is scary hot.

Those pie pans are deeper than normal, so they probably should have baked longer. However, the pastry on top was perfect. The apples were crispier than the rest of the crust, but that actually worked. The taste was amazing.

I’m not a fan of that book’s crusts, but the fillings are the best I’ve ever had.