The Apple Pie of My Eye

In the world of recipe-making, there is a huge challenge of making things original. While I admit to be far from pro with my personal recipes, I make it a point to give credit where it's due (especially since I still rely heavily on cookbooks and cooking tutorials). For this classic dessert recipe of apple pie, I am using a combination of recipes from recipe-makers that I look up to: David Lebovitz, Chef John from foodwishes.com, and the creative minds behind the cinnamon clotted cream of Tea Time magazine.

Because I didn't have any of David's suggested baking equipment, I went manual with making the pie dough and cut the quantity of the ingredients in half to make rolling and kneading more manageable. Though, you could always refer to p. 230 of Ready for Dessert: My Best Recipes by David Lebovitz if you have a well-equipped kitchen. With the small amount of pie dough, it could fit well in my mini 6-inch sandwich tin that will be baked in my oven toaster.

Making the apple pie filling starts out the same way: have some apples, squirt some lemon juice, dump in the sugar and spices, then mix it all together. I watched Chef John's Caramel Apple Pie video and got inspired to take a leaf from his book. I found the end result to be really sweet, spicy and apple-y. You can eat it on its own with a steaming mug of good coffee or a pot of your favorite tea. Adding a spoonful of cream on top gives this slice of pie a rich finish. Skip the sugar because the caramel does all the work in the sweetening department. But if you can't help it, add just a table spoon or two.

Petite Caramel Apple Pie with Cinnamon Clotted Cream

In my country, bringing home a box of coconut-custard pie is customary when one have been away on an out of town trip. Pies are simple to make and equally fast to eat. Since I learned to make pies, I think I'll have this as my official go-to edible gift when visiting friends I haven't seen a long time like my friends at the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Temple. For Buddhists, though, one needs to skip the egg wash before running it in the oven. Use milk instead with a sprinkling of coarse sugar like turbinado or demerera or regular granulated sugar.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1/2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick of unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes and chilled
3-5 tbsp iced water

2 medium-sized apples, cored, peeled and sliced into thin crescents
(I used Red Delicious and Gala. You could also use Granny Smith or Golden Delicious)
4-5 tbsp lemon juice
4 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp butter or margarine
3-4 tbsp rum or Cointreau (optional)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

250 ml tetra pack of whipping cream or all purpose cream, chilled
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon, plus a pinch for garnish
1-2 tbsp sugar

Directions 

Making the Pre-baked Pie Shell

1. I used a metal ice cream tin to mix together the flour, sugar, and salt with a chilled egg beater/wire whisk.

2. Then, add the chilled butter cubes and press down with the wire whisk until the flour turn yellow-y with bits of crumbed butter.

3. Add 3 tbsp of iced water and dissolve into the dough until the mixture begins to get damp and flaky. Add another tablespoon or two of iced water if necessary.

4. Scrape off the extra dough from the wire whisk before tipping the contents of the ice cream tin onto a wide sheet of cling film. Press and pat the pie dough crumbs together until you form a disk (about 1 inch or 3 cm thick according to Mr. Lebovitz).

5. If the dough easily crumbles and you can't pick it up without falling apart, secure your pie dough disk with aluminum foil and refrigerate for at least an hour.

David's Tip 
"If the dough is chilled for more than 1 hour, before you roll it out, let it stand at room temperature for about 5 minutes until it becomes slightly malleable again" (Leibovitz, 2010).

For the pre-baked pie shell, old habits die hard. I used the same method I employed in rolling the quiche shell in Quiche and Tell, using runnyrunny999's way of folding and rolling the dough. David's method was to roll the dough once and pick up the rolled dough with the rolling pin and spreading it over your pie pan (he used 9 inch pie tin with removable bottom).

6. Lightly prick the pie dough surface with a fork and cover with foil.

7. Add pie weights or coins, uncooked rice grains, or beans and bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees F or 200 degrees C. After that, remove the pie weights and foil and run it under your oven again for 2-3 minutes at 200 degrees C to lightly brown the edges. Cool and set aside.

Making the Caramel Apple Filling

1. In a mixing bowl, mix together the apple slices, lemon juice, sugar (both brown and white), and spices. Mix well to incorporate the the spiced sugar with the apples and let stand for 15-20 minutes.

2. Use a saucepan and a colander to drain and catch the syrupy juice of the steeped apples. Let stand for 3-5 minutes to almost completely drip out the juice.

3. Scoop the apples onto the pre-baked pie shell. For the spiced apple juice syrup, turn the stove to medium low heat and let it simmer until the mixture starts to bubble.

4. Add your butter and gently stir to help it melt. Then, add your liquor of choice, if desired. Let it bubble merrily for 2 more minutes and you're done.

Assembling and Baking the Pie

1. Chef John made the lattice pie dough weave first before pouring on the caramel syrup. But this part is up to you. I added two heaping table spoons of the syrup on the apples before adding the lattice pie weave.

2. If you don't like the hassle of cutting strips of pie dough, you could just roll the dough into a thin pie dough blanket that you could cover over the pie filling. Tuck and press the edges to the side of your pie pan and pierce holes for the steam to get out.

3. You could brush egg wash over the raw pie crust or spread a teaspoon of the caramel syrup over the pie before running it under your oven toaster for 6-8 minutes (because oven toasters usually have a temperature of 200 degrees C or 400 degrees F) or when the pie crust is golden brown and the pie filling is bubbling.

4. Carefully take it out of the oven and cool to room temperature or eat while warm of desired.

The cinnamon clotted cream recipe is unfortunately unavailable on Tea Time Magazine's website, so I'll give you an approximation of how I adopted the recipe:

Making the Cinnamon Clotted Cream

Tea Time's cinnamon clotted cream mixed the 1 tsp of the spice into the cream. But, I only used half that amount, then sprinkled cinnamon on top as a final touch. I think it's much more delicate and won't overpower the spice in the apple pie.

1. Prepare a big bowl with ice cubes in it. Pour your whipping or all-purpose cream onto a smaller mixing bowl (preferably made of metal or glass for easy conduction of the cold temperature).

2. Add your vanilla extract, ground cinnamon and a little bit of sugar if desired. Whip everything together until you get a firm cream with soft peaks.

Spoon this over your pie and sprinkle with a little bit of cinnamon. YUM! :-D

My mum and dad loved having the pie with coffee when I baked this for them one Sunday night. Since this pie is heavily spiced, it's my personal preference to not pair it with a spiced tea. I found this to go well with herbed-infused teas like peppermint, chamomile, or rose hip. 

Having this pie is sinful as a midnight snack, and delectable as a tea party centerpiece. While the flavors could be considered as an autumn-time staple, I think the apple pie is a joy to have even if the weather is warm. :D If you added rum to your syrup, it could last for three weeks chilled in the deep recesses of your fridge and could survive a month if frozen.