Baking! And other stuff!

[sakon76]

Sprouts had a sale on a lot of different types of apples this week, so I indulged. And bought a LOT. With a thought toward applesauce, apple jams, apple pies....

Tomorrow being a (large!) family dinner at my parents' place, I decided to experiment for the latter. You see, my go-to recipe is Apple Pie I from The Joy of Cooking. But there's also an Apple Pie II recipe, which precooks the apples so they don't shrink as much during the baking and you don't end up with a crust hovering an inch above the filling. I've never tried it. As of today I have, making one of each type to do a contrast/compare tomorrow. And since I had a bit of crust left over, and a bit of frozen mixed berries just hanging out in the freezer, I freestyled a couple of small tarts for dinner tonight.

I also pulled out a bed's worth of weeds and dead tomato plants, while Wonderful Husband fixed our washer (which wasn't draining properly), and also repaired my car's dome light and replaced the Squiddle's nightlight bulb.

Ah, yes, the Squiddle. Who had gotten me up five times by five a.m. last night, and then Wonderful Husband stayed up with him for a few hours until I was awake, whereupon we tag-teamed out. Usually the baby's much better than that. We're working on the theory that maybe his bedroom needs to be a touch warmer. He has also, as of yesterday, figured out how to open doors. Maybe getting paddle handles instead of knobs was a bad idea.... :)

And the big thing that happened this week was that we threw my parents a bon voyage party, and managed to keep it, and the fact that my younger sister flew down for it, a surprise from my mother until she walked in the restaurant door. ^_^ Being my first foray into party planning, this wasn't exactly a stress-free event, but I think it came off rather well. And now I know what I'm going about for the next time.

Comments

[fairegoddess.livejournal.com]

Do you have a verdict on the pie, or is that waiting for tomorrow's event? My basic pie filling is from Mrs. Fields' cookie book, bit it's just the typical apples, cornstarch, sugar and spices variety. One of these days I want to attempt canned filling for easy pie baking...

[sakon76.livejournal.com]

Verdict: small differences, but both were good. The pre-cooked filling recipe (Apple Pie II) shrank less in the cooking, so there was less of a gap between crust and content, which I liked. And the apple slices within seemed to be a bit firmer to me, but then the recipe had me cut those a little thicker than for Apple Pie I. OTOH, APII dirties an extra pan and lid. So, I suspect in the future it will all depend on how much washing up I feel like doing.

I've never tried making a pie from canned filling. I worry that it would be too sweet. As it is, I cut the sugar in my filling recipes by anywhere from a third to a half. And if I wanted to make my own jarred filling (which, believe you me, I've considered), I don't have enough knowledge to be safely able to adjust the sugar in it.

Incidentally, signed up for CoCo yet? I need to do so tomorrow.

[fairegoddess.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'll try the cooked method next time! I enjoy playing with fancy crusts, so not having gaposis would be a neat trick. And if I'm putting a bunch of extra effort into the crust anyway, what's a little bit more? Apple pie is never a "quick" pie for me, so it's all a matter of scale I suppose.

I haven't yet; I'm a GBACG member, not CGW, so I have to wait for the second wave of registrations. I'll be on it like white on rice when it opens though!