Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Apple and Peach Pie

It was a random summer morning. Me and my cousin were at home and we were both tired of sitting on our computers or watching tv. One look inside the fridge told us that we had too many fruits on the verge of spoiling. The highest in numbers were apples, followed closely by peaches. After a few minutes of contemplating, debating, googling and looking for the right ingredients (because we were just too lazy to go to the grocery store) we decided to bake an apple and peach pie recipe that we found online.


Source: indosungod.blogspot.com

For the Crust:
We had the bottom crust ready so we used half of all the given quantities.
1. 1 cup flour (or 1.25 cups could be used)
2. Half  a stick of butter (preferably melted a bit, its easier to mix then)
3. Half a tsp salt
4. 1 tbsp of sugar.

For the Filling:
1. 4 regular medium sized apples.(Granny Smith maybe recommended but we just used regular)
2. 2 medium sized fresh peaches. (Canned peaches maybe used either) but in case of fresh they need to be peeled, cored.
3. 1 cup brown sugar.
4. 1/2 tsp - 3/4 tsp cinnamon (I love cinnamon in desserts, but you can go less)
5. 2 and 1/2 tsp corn starch.
6.1/4th tsp salt.
7. 1 tbsp water.
8. 1 tbsp lemon juice. (It was baking for the first time for me and I was very surprised by this)

Peel, core and dice the apples and peaches  about 1/4th inch thick. I spent a lot of time trying to get the peaches and the apples to have a consistent shape. I am a great cook yet so I have to pay attention even to the slight details. For the most part I am also a perfectionist so I spent like a good 20 minutes trying to get all to be similar shaped and consistent.
In a saucepan add the apples, peaches, sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon. Add in a tbsp of water to prevent the sugar from burning. Let it cook for 10-12 mins till the sugar is glossy. (By the time I was done with this step the kitchen smelled so strongly of cinnamon I just had to try some. But if you have extra filling I have put some on my pancakes before, it makes a slightly more healthy choice than sweet syrup. I can have the filling by itself.)
 Turn off the heat after the sugar is glossy and add lemon juice. (I think the lemon juice brings out the flavor of the sugar and cinnamon.) Set aside for cooling  for about 20 mins or so.

For the Crust: 
Put together the flour, butter and add in the salt and sugar. I know I had trouble with getting the butter to mix well and to make it into a dough, so we tried to melt the butter a bit and then mix it. It worked well.
Lay the dough in a plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 30-60 mins.
I also had trouble with getting the dough to spread out well or maybe I just took really long to roll it out but the butter melted fast and the dough became sticky and hard to roll out. In that case, I just added more flour and put it back in the fridge for another 20 mins. Make sure to dust the rolling pin and the board with dry flour in case it becomes sticky.
After that it rolled out beautifully.

For the Pie: 
1. Preheat the oven to 400 F.
2. We then emptied the apples and the peaches in the pie crust and covered it with the dough we rolled out.
Break out the extra crust. Make slits on top and bake for an hour or till the crust is golden brown.


Notes:
I forgot to click pictures of the ready pie. But I will add some next time I bake again!
It maybe had with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, but not for the health-conscious.











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