Perfect Apple Pie

Sometimes, I use a combo lard/butter. Never used the leaf lard though and it looks interesting. I don't use Crisco though, we have something here under the brand Tenderleaf. It's lard as opposed to the vegetable stuff, i.e. Crisco.

I always add a little bit of white vinegar or lemon juice which ensures tenderness and flakiness.

:p

O.k. I still don't follow exactly...."To render" means to me... to slowly cook off (sorry I don't have a cooking dictionary)/ to render off fat I would cook off the fat? Like bacon, just cook it and it melts into softer fat, then store in the cooler? Isn't veg. fat healthier than animal fat???

But when I use rendered fat it really tastes like the animal it comes from...? Not so clear/clean of a flavor.


Sandy here's the recipe for the mealy crust:

This make 4 crusts if you only want 1, divide the recipe by 4 and that will give you the right quanities of 1.

20 oz. flour
13 oz. shortening
5 oz. ice cold h2o
2 tsp. salt
1 oz. sugar

Rub shortening into flour and salt until fat pieces are like cornmeal in texture. Dissolve salt and sugar in h2o and just gently mix until water is absorbed. Refridgerate apox. 4 hours till well chilled before making your pie.

Use that crust for your bottom crust, then use your own pie dough recipe for your top . Preferable one that's about 1/2 butter 1/2 shortening.


Apple filling: makes 1 pie

2 lbs. apples peeled and sliced (I needed more for a full 9" pie)
1 oz. butter
3 oz. sugar

saute until apples just barely start turning soft. Then mix together and add:

2 oz. cold h2o
1 oz. cornstarch

Boil this with your apples for a breif moment. Then add:

3.5 oz. sugar
1/3 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
2 tsp. lemon juice (I omit this when my apples are very tart)
2 tsp. butter

Stir gentle until butter melts and sugar is disolved. Spread apple filling out on a sheet pan to cool and place in the refridgerator to cool down the quickly.

Assemble as usual using mealy dough for your bottom crust. Bake at 425 apro. 40 minutes (or until the dough on the bottom is set). Cool quickly by placing pie on cake rack (not on a solid surface).

Yep~ over a low heat cook or simmer the leaf lard until you have"cracklins" and liquid fat. It solidifies like veg shortening. Leaf lard does not have an overt animal flavor and is an old time favorite for deep fried chicken or pies. Healthy aspects.....I've read shtuff recently that says coconut oil is good for you....animal fats better than hydrogenated veg.....who knows what to believe....moderation is probably the best response.

Just for the heck of it I made a pie recently using Morrell Lard. It tasted piggy and meaty. I didn't notice that it was any flakier than my usual delicious pie crust. I typically rub in the cold butter first, leaving it huge, then the shortening, then just toss it with the ice water.

How to render lard

Hi Wendy,

1. Take the fat and dice it roughly. Try not to include any scraps of meat. The fat around the kidneys is considered choicest.
2. Put the diced fat, which you have weighed, into a large kettle with a couple tablespoons of water.
3. Heat it over moderate heat until completely rendered and clear and the water has evaporated off. You should have clear, unbrowned fat, with some brown bits in the bottom.
4. Now, according to my Gram, comes the “secret” part. For each 10 pounds of lard that you started with, add 1 pound of best quality unsalted butter and let it stand in the fat til melted. Mix gently and ladle off the lard into crocks or however you plan to store it in a cool place. Be sure to get only the clear stuff.
5. Drain the brown bits and top a green salad with them.



Uses:
Pie crust
Tamale dough


P.S.: "In Julia's Kitchen" you will find hard facts about lard. My books are in storage right now. Can someone find and post Julia's findings for me? and yes Shroom, moderation is probably the best response.

Sorry Kimmie I don't have In Julia's Kitchen.


There are a few lard pie crust recipes in The Pie And Pastry Bible.

Shirley O. Corriher has an extensive [really extensive] discussion of fats and flours in pie crust in Cookwise . Now that Iza has me started making pies again...I want to experiment with some of Shirley's recipes and see whether lard does make the flakiest crust and whether low protein flour makes a more tender crust.

adding things like lard (high melting point and low moisture), milk powder(colour) and acid (lemon juice or vinegar to relax the proteins) help to create the flakiest of crusties.

the best thing ever for a picture perfect pie, but you would not want to eat it, is puff paste-a combination of tallow and hard hydroginated fat. The melting point is so high, when you eat it, it coats your mouth, awful! but very pretty.


Next question, a la mode or chedder?

My husband loved apple pie with cheese (any cheese) long before he ever found out that this is commonly done. What a great palate! I don't like a la mode because I tend to be a slow eater and the ice cream usually melts and makes goo out of the crust before I'm done. So, cheddar it is for me too I guess. (although I think I still prefer raw apples with my cheese).

I have never tried it with cheese, one day I will. In my family the pie is the accompaniment to the ice cream not the other way around.

For ala carte (when cheese is requested) do you prefer to put your pie slice with cheese (one slice or two?) in the oven to melt or the broiler? Cheddar or american?

I love apple pie, when it’s really home made. I never but grocery store apple pie. The apple never taste like apple and they’re often floating in sometime of goo. The crust isn’t much better, often tasting just like cardboard.



Anneke have you ever thought of adding the grated cheese to the dough before baking your apple pie?

No I haven't Isa, that sounds BRILLIANT though...
I like the idea of adding flavours to the dough: when I make lemon tarts I like using grated lemon zest in the crust.

Cheddar please. No «à la mode» for me, thank you.

Great idea, Isa. Would you use an older Cheddar (30 months)?

I don't think you'd really taste anything younger than that Kimmie...

I agree, it’s nice to add flavour to the dough. I like to add spices or herbs to the dough using it to enhance the flavour of the filling. Spices will gives the crust a nice colour. Herbs are great, you can play with it, chopping it really fine or leaving it whole.

Thanks girls!



:p

Kimmie: Tous les gouts sont dans la nature....


If 30 months old cheddar in your pie makes you happy, go for it! Me? I'll pass. ;)

Isa, what would you use?

In my apple pie? Nothing except apple and spices: cinnamon, a pinch of ginger, a touch of nutmeg and asmidgen of all spice. Serve with an ice cold glass of milk.


Lately I've been craving cinnamon ice cream, no idea why I've never even tasted cinnamon ice cream. Who knows if I had some maybe I'd have some with the aple pie....

Isa, there's this really great ice cream place here called Greg's Ice Cream, especially known for their ultimate super-dreamy roasted marshmallow ice cream. (Yuuuummmmmmmm..Campfire in a cone...)
They make cinnamon ice cream once in a while. Frankly, I'm not sure I like it all that much. It has a bit of a grainy feel to it, and because both cinnamon and ice are known for numbing your taste buds, in the end you onkly get texture and very little flavour.
I think cinnamon really works best on something warm...

Good point Anneke. I do wonder if they use real cinnamon or cassia in their ice cream? It might make a difference in the end product.

Aha! Also a good point!
Greg's only uses the real stuff....

There's several published recipes for pie crusts with cheese them. They sound interesting, but I alway thought it would ruin the crumb of the pastry....


You can add cinnamon to vanilla ice cream to make cinnamon ice cream. It's quite good. Better yet... freeze layers of cinnamon ice cream with layered vanilla ice cream. Then scoop through both layers so you get a marbled scoop, yum. Lot's you can do with that, incuding add some sugared pecans in your cin. ice cream. That would be nice with you crisp Anneke....

Apple pie

I don't add any kind of thickening to apple pie, depending on the pectin in the apple to create its own thickening. I dust it with sugar and cinnamon. I limit the sugar as much as possible, between 1/4 to 1/2 cup per 9 inch pie. I don't precook the apples.

This is kind of late but I had found a location on the web last week. I had asked the question of whether some apples had more pectin than others. This is the ans. I received:

"Thank you for visiting our site.

According to the text "Processed Apple Products," reported pectic constituents in apples varied during maturation, which may be due to use of different cultivars and growing conditions. While pectin is found mostly in the peel, pectin also can be linked with various sugars found in the apple flesh (e.g., arabinose, xylose)

We do not have any recent information on the pectin content of various apples, however. You may want to check with universities like Cornell that do research or organizations that deal primarily with fresh apples (www.usapple.org)."


If any one wishes to investigate further maybe this site would be of help.

Rue

W. deBord: Thanks for the pie recipe. Can't wait to try it out!

leaf lard

just dropped in for a few seconds and noticed the discussion of leaf lard. When butchering a hog, leaf lard is generally just under the skin and comes off in slabs of almost pure lard. It will render out almost with out cracklings. The other lard that is pulled off of the organs and meat and should not be mixed with the leaf lard but rendered separately. As was stated, the leaf will not carry the flavor of the meat. Any lard that is rendered with meat or connective tissue around the organs etc. will naturally have some of the flavoring and will inbue that to whatever it is cooked with. Lard is still the best for pie crust and fried chicken.

Rue

i usually make about 60-75 10-in. pies come Thanksgiving. I finally got down with my formula and here's what works for me:

1. combination of Granny Smith and Golden Delicious apples.
2. flaky pie crust using 1/2 butter 1/2 shortening. The shortening really helps the piecrust crimping stay in shape, the butter provides wonderful flavor. I only use all shortening for parve pies.
3. I find it easier to do it the old-fashioned way(no pre-cooking the apples) because of time constraints. I make sure the apples are chopped small(more surface area, so they can be packed with less air gaps into the pie shell) and I use cornstarch. Flour is fine but I like the clear juices with cornstarch.
4. I melt the butter and mix it in with the filling instead of dotting the pie with cold butter cubes. More even distribution.
5. Bake at 400F(convection, with a sheet pan underneath) first 15 minutes then lower to 350 for 45 minutes.
6. Sometimes instead of lemon juice I use orange juice concentrate.

I certainly have found some useful tips in this thread and hope to try them this coming month.
Wendy, I'm glad Pro Baking(the new edition) is helpful. :)

I'm working on my recipe file and realize my best baking powder biscuits use lemon juice for tenderness. Then I came across another recipe from a southern cook who uses lemon juice in her pie crusts. So I remember someone (I think Momoreg?) here mentioned they use lemon juice also in their crust.

So I was wondering if whom ever would share that point and how much lemon they use...also where did you learn that? I haven't seen any other reference to it in baking books with pie dough?

P.S. Tell me you don't have to roll all those crusts out by hand at the same time Angry? Yuk.

P. S. What's everyones thoughts about storing their baked pies? With or with-out plastic on top and room temp. or the cooler? I'm not sure if I've noticed any differences over the years with how they keep. Seems they last nicely for about 2 day and then they break down regardless of method.?

Wendy, the addition of an acid(vinegar, lemon juice, sour cream) helps tenderize the gluten strands in the pie dough. In the Pie and Pastry Bible(Rose Levy B.) she explains this. I don't add an acid to my pie dough since I use pastry flour, but I will try it sometime.
It is tiring to roll out the pie crusts, but I do it a couple of days ahead of time(with my assistant) and stack them between parchment so they don't dry out.
I cool the pies to room temp., then they go in the walk-in in cake boxes.

I'm a pie freezer. Why? Because I like them to last. To preserve my pie I cut them into pieces than put the pie and the plate in the freezer. Once the pie is frozen I individually wrap each piece individually. When I have a pie craving I just oopen my frezer and choose a nice piece.