Cooking with Natatomic, a PTR

[natatomic]

(Inspired by the TPR twitter contest thing)

 

One of my friends is a HUGE Pushing Daisies fan, and because I don't have enough things in my life to obsess over, he decided to get me hooked on the show as well. And it worked. I watched all the older episodes online first, but I just bought the first season on DVD the other day, and I've already come up with a few ideas on how to convince my future hypothetical husband that we should name our future hypothetical daughter Chuck (that tends to be a theme with me, coming up with allusive baby names for children I don't even have yet; and at this point, I'm going to have to have 80 kids just to use all the names up).

 

Some of you may know this about me, but in case others of you haven't noticed, when I get into something, I really get into it. I either love something completely to the point where I carve out a little nook in my heart for it to live and thrive, or I don't give it the time of day. That's just my style. And so that may explain my sudden inspiration to bake a pie entirely from scratch (something I've never done before), a pie whose favor I first heard about on Pushing Daisies (tart apple with Gruyere baked into the crust, sans the homeopathic anti-depressants). And I don't even like pie!

 

I may have more than my share of faults, but lack of dedication and loyalty ain't one of 'em.

And, the lovely mess afterward. I have some dough left over as you can see, so I think I'm going to add in more cheese and put some sort of jam or jelly inside and make some turnovers.

Ta-da! I cut myself a small sliver about an hour ago, and for being a person who doesn't generally like pie, I thought it was quite yummy. So! Success! Yay! If I ever make it again, I think I'll go ahead and use a full cup of sugar and even more cheese in the actual dough, just because I like flavors to knock me off my bum, but otherwise, I thought it was pretty excellent.

After I glazed the egg on top and cut three slits for steam to escape out of, I shredded a bit more cheese on top. The recipe didn't call for that, but one can never have too much cheese. Ever.

Wow! You'd think I actually knew what I was doing!

I think it could have used at least 1/2 an apple more, but no biggy.

Starting to look like a real pie, eh?

The recipe suggested rolling the dough on parchment paper so it wouldn't stick. Well, I don't have any parchment paper, so I just wiped down the counter, threw some flour on it, and shrugged at the mess.

The apples mixed with all the other ingredients:

Here's a totally staged photo of me peeling the apples with a paring knife I got for Christmas. I didn't even ask for it, but look at how handy it came in! I'd never peeled apples before, but if this becomes a habit of mine, I think it would be a worthy investment to buy an actual peeler.

And yes, that is my dog on my lap, but she's under the glass and away from the food. All good.

The next day, I gathered all the ingredients to finish the pie. Lemon juice, cornstarch, cinnamon, and sugar (the recipe called for regular granulated sugar, but I ended up increasing the amount of sugar from 1/2c to 3/4c and using 1/4c white sugar and 1/2c brown sugar. That just seemed more appropriate to me for an apple pie). Also, one egg to cover the pie with and 3 apples for the actual apple filling. I went with Empires 'cause they're just so darn pretty, but any tart apple I suppose would work fine.

Rolled the dough into two balls, and then let them sit in the fridge overnight.

I rarely use beaters or food processors in my cooking unless it's absolutely necessary. It's just one more thing I have to clean, and I think things taste better with my own sweat and blood baked into it. Figuratively speaking, of course. There is no sweat nor blood in this pie. But I read somewhere that with pie crusts, it's best to leave pea-size chunks of butter so that they spread out in the dough when you roll it, which leads to the maximum amount of flakiness, so the hand method seemed to be ideal, rather than machine mixed.

Oh, and don't worry - I washed my hands a couple of days ago, so I'm good.

Here's all the ingredients I used for the crust. Flour, ice water, sugar & salt, butter, and gruyere (a delicious hard, salty, nutty cheese. It makes my hands smell like a bathroom, but the taste is fantastic!) Supposedly, leaf lard makes the best pie crusts, and I was all about to go buy some (the fat shaved from pig kidneys doesn't gross me out), until I realized that it's extreme hard to come by. I couldn't find anyone local who sells it, and while I found a cute Pennsylvanian butcher who would be more than willing to send some to me so long as I would send a check first (snail mail! isn't that cute?!), I didn't have time seeing as how I wanted to make this pie for Christmas (i.e. tomorrow). So I opted for the next best choice and went for an all-butter crust. Hence the giant bowl full of the stuff.

[coasterbadboy]

Absolutely LOVE it! Yes, Pushing Daisies was the best show EVAR!!!11! (And yet they keep Private Practice? WTF?)

 

And I love apple pies. So I'm totally hooked on this TR.

 

And as your future hypothetical husband, I would SO be on board with a daughter named Chuck.

[Emiroo]

The pie looks wonderful, though cheese in a pie does not compute for me.

 

Can I request a Boston Cream Pie?

[Moose]

Thankyou for taking us along on your baking. I love pies. I love apple pies even more but would never have thought to add cheese to the pie. It looks delicous and picture perfect, quite an accomplishment for a first ever pie made from scratch. Congrats!

 

Re: the half an apple more. I think you can never have enough apples in a pie and have been known to stuff the pie with an entire bag of them. Minus the bag of course.

[natatomic]

The pie looks wonderful, though cheese in a pie does not compute for me.

 

Can I request a Boston Cream Pie?

 

I thought the same thing until I tried this pie. Think of the cheese as more of an herb or a spice rather than a main ingredient. It compliments the apples and sugar instead of taking away from them. Gives it that salty/sweet combo lots of people are fond of. I know here in the south cheddar cheese is common in apple pies. Maybe we're just a weird bunch.

 

I do enjoy Boston Cream Pie, though. I'll have to find a good recipe for it and try it out sometime.

[dandaman]

And here I sit with a half-kilo box of Smarties shipped from Canada... Natalie's cooking > imports. I don't like apple products besides actual apples and the fake Jolly Rancher-tasting flavors, but this pie looks pretty damned good. Thanks for the photos!

[mcjaco]

Becareful with the mentioning of pie in these parts. It's been kown to get a few people's undies in a bunch.

 

That being said, that pie looks awesome!

 

Pie kicks the crap out of cake any day!

[natatomic]

^I know it's gonna be weird for me to say this after my pie-making report, but I actually MUCH prefer cake. I'd take cake ANY day over pie.

[mcjaco]

^ You and I can never be together.

[natatomic]

^If it makes you feel any better, I at least find baking pie a LOT more fun than baking a cake.

 

Besides, I make a MEAN Bananas Foster Bread Pudding that I bet could win you over. I'd say that's a nice happy medium between pie and cake, wouldn't you?

[mcjaco]

You said the magic words. Banana. And Foster.

[Brandy524]

That pie looks awesome, Natalie!

 

I too watched Pushing Daisies and wondered if the cheese in the pie would be good. It sure looks good!

[dandaman]

It's always a wonderful day for pie!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BldId1BSdo

[King of Ka]

^ It's always a better day for Cake.

 

 

EDIT: Also, that pie is awesome looking. I must try to make that.

[ebl]

There is never a bad time for a slice of pie.

 

And cheese rules, especially if it's Cheddar!

 

Eric

[Meteornotes]

Pie destroys cake.

 

Pushing Daisies rules. Stupid TV networks.

 

That pie looks tasty. I have to make one like that some time. One of my winter projects is to teach myself how to bake more things. I think I will document these attempts, with the assistance of Chef Ice Bat.

 

dt

[Electerik]

I have never seen Pushing Daisies. However, there is room in my heart for both cake and pie.

 

/With Boston Cream Pie being a sort of perfect compromise.

[Vintage]

I think I just fell in love with you............r pie.

[dino]

Awesome pie, your report has inspired me to make one of my own now.

As for the naming of your child. Chuck is fine, but might I suggest "Digby"?