Two weeks ago, I made a pie. It was Canadian Thanksgiving. I am not Canadian, and neither were any of us who were celebrating it together. It’s just a thing we seem to do, at least since last year!
This pie marks the first pie crust of the dough variety I’ve made since my first unsuccessful attempt at homemade crust several years ago. Anxiously, I thought of all of the things that could go wrong, from the typical (dense, not flaky crust) to the irrational (eaten by wild monkeys).
To help ease my worries, I went with a recipe from a source that has yet to let me down: Deb of Smitten Kitchen. She has a few pie crust how-to’s; I went with the all butter crust from Pie Crust 102.
There’s really not much that goes into making a crust, ingredient and effort-wise. Cold butter is cut into a mixture of flour, sugar, and salt. Ice cold water is stirred in. Form a disc, wrap up, and refrigerate for an hour or up to 3 days.
By the way, the filling was maple apple. This is the recipe that I used, but was not happy with the results. Will address at the end of the post!
After resting the fridge, rolling the dough out also wasn’t difficult. The best Deb tip was to fold the rolled dough into quarters to make for an easy transfer to the pie dish. I free-handed a maple leaf cut-out for ventilation, then totally used the shape of the dish to my advantage for edge crimping time.
At this point, you should brush an egg wash over the crust and sprinkle with sugar, but this wasn’t in the pie crust instructions. It would have resulted in a shiny, more golden brown crust with probably a little extra crispness on top, but mine came out fine, anyway. I kind of couldn’t believe it.
I then drove down to San Antonio with this pie as my co-pilot for the feast. (My car smelled GOOD.) Morgen roasted potatoes with pearl onions that she peeled with her own hands. Jill roasted brussels sprouts with parmesan and mashed acorn squash.
As I was then feeling like an obnoxious food tourist, I just took a picture of my servings for the rest of the food. Jill also made the lentil soup, and Julie made pumpkin rolls. Andrew made cocktails with Clamato, vodka, and jalapeño olives (I think that’s right), but I’m lame and don’t like tomato-based drinks and had wine instead.
After stuffing ourselves with deliciousness, it was time for pie. Desserts that don’t allow for sampling prior to serving are always nerve-wracking, but I was feeling pretty confident just because the crust looked like a success. However, when I lifted the first piece out, the filling looked like apples and water. FAIL! I’m not sure why this happened, but it could be that I didn’t bake the pie for long enough. Or maybe cutting apple cubes instead of slices was a bad idea? Thoughts?
Either way, it tasted good, but was just such a bummer to see. I couldn’t even take a picture! Practice run for next month, I guess…
A very belated Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends!
bake me away! 
Aww, I’m sorry your apple filling didn’t turn out the way you were hoping. I don’t have any idea why it would have been so watery. Perhaps the cubed apples were too thick to soak up the maple syrup when it got heated?? Your crust does look wonderful though. At least you enjoyed a great evening with friends ;)
That’s a strange filling recipe, but a neat idea I think I’ll try and adapt sometime. I have about 14 wee jugs of maple syrup bumpin and grindin the months away in both my fridge and cupboard – it’s time to use those sweethearts up.
It might depend on what apples you used, or maybe not. Did it seem like it was too much liquid from the syrup, and the sugar just boiled off? I wonder if the apples could be ‘marinated’ in syrup overnight in the fridge or something, to remedy this. Maybe with a small nibbins of lemon juice?
In concept this sounds great. Ohhhh, Caahnnnnnnaduhhhhhh.
Paula – Yeah, I’m not sure why I cubed the apples…that could be it! Thanks, and yeah, not all was lost. I think between them and my roommates, the whole things was eaten!
Emma – Right? That’s a lot of syrup! I bought a fair-sized jug from Costco and put a small dent in it with this. I used ginger gold apples which are supposed to be good for baking. There was some liquid when I added the filling, but think it was just the syrup. I think I’m just going to try a different filling recipe next time…and slice the apples!
That crust looks perfect! I love the embellishment on top!
I had Deb walk me through my first pie crust as well :) Yours looks scrumptious!
Jessica, I think I’ve figured it out. The Apples could have been too watery. But, The recipe needs a thickening agent (Cornstarch, Tapioca or Flour). Seems like if you add a thickening agent to the apples before you bake it off that you shouldn’t have this problem next time.
Greg – Thanks!
Ashley – She has never let me down. :)
Crystal – There is a tablespoon of flour in it, but I agree that there should either be more of it or one of the others in addition. I feel like I need to master apple pie after this!
Fabulous! Pie crust is one of those baking things that’s on my to-do list…I’m glad yours turned out so well! I suppose it’s tough to go wrong with Smitten Kitchen, right? ^_^
Gorgeous! Would love to try this once our oven fells better ^^ Can’t wait! I can literally smell the pie! XD
*feels (typo…sorry >.<)
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