The weather is pretty dull today… it’s raining, neither cold nor hot, and the sky is an uniform shade of grey. It is in fact a great day for a real comfort food: apple pie Brioche style! One of my daughter’s favorite !
When my daughter was born, i told myself i should know how to bake cake – to my mind, it was one of the pre-requisite to be a good mum. Since, I’ve been trying different kind of recipes. At first, it was a disaster: no management of time, burnt crust, lumpy ‘crème pâtissière’, too sweet, too bitter, too compact or not cooked enough… how much flour, sugar and eggs did I wasted !! But as stubborn as I am, I kept practicing baking cakes – to my guy’s despair ! And I have to say that my baking skills really improved… well, now I can see that when I put a desert on the table, there is no left overs (which wasn’t the case before!). So I guess it is a good indicator!
So, at the end of the day, i don’t if this makes me a good mother but at least, maybe, somehow, it might compensate some flaws… maybe ?
I will come back in another post about being a mum, but more particularly about being an « expat (or nomad, stateless) mum », who is a regular mum – after all – but with few extra challenges !
Ingredients:
For the pie crust:
- 300g of flour
- 100ml of milk
- 50ml vegetable or butter
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 egg
- 2 table spoom of baking yeast
- 2 teaspoon of sugar
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla (essence or powder)
For the apple preparation: - Juice of a ½ lemon
- 50g of sugar
- 3 apples (alternatively: 2 apples and 1 pear – it is quite good as well)
- Powdered cinnamon + vanilla
- 3 tablespoon of milk + sugar (for sprinkling on the pie)
Apple compote (stewed apples): - a dash of lemon juice
- sugar
- 3 apples
- a knob of butter
- vanilla
- 3 apples
1. The crust:
Put the yeast in the warmed milk and sugar. Let it rest for about 10 minutes.
Once the yeast mixture has risen a bit, add eggs, butter/oil, vanilla and salt.
Then add the flour. Knead until you have a homogeneous, smooth and soft dough. Let the dough rest for an hour.
While waiting for the dough to rise, prepare the apples and compote.
2. Apple compote:
In a saucepan, cook the make apples cut in small pieces, with a dash of lemon, sugar and cinnamon. Once cooked, crush the apples with a fork in order to make a purée out of it.
3. Apples preparation:
Boil the water with lemon, sugar and vanilla in order to make a sort of syrup.
Plunge the sliced apples in the syrup and cook for 5 minutes.
I personally keep the syrup aside in order to make a glaze of it, but it is completely optional! If you have agar agar in hand: boil again the syrup, and add the agar agar.
4. The final touch – assembling the different components!
Once the dough has arisen, remove the air from the dough by punching it once (baking is a good anti-stress!) and knead. Then flatten with a rolling pin (or a bottle or a long glass) and place it in the mould.
Cover the dough with apple compote and place the apple slices on top.
Brush with milk the contour of the pie. Sprinkle the apples with sugar and cinnamon (split almonds are also a yummy option!).
Bake in the over for about 30 minutes. Once out of the over you can brush the apples with the syrup/agar agar mixture (but again it is totally optional as it just to make your pie shine and look prettier!). And let it cool (patience…).
PS: Reading back my post, I noticed I got confused between the terms ‘tart’ and ‘pie’ and wondered about the difference between the 2. So I went searching on the web… it happens that the only difference between the 2 is the dish used to bake: straight-walled pan with a removable bottom or pan with sloping sides… Pfff~
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| A very simple pie (or tart)… well, supposedly, apples can be found anywhere in the world. If not, it can be replaced by any consistent fruit available locally. I think pineapple could be a tasty alternative. I’ve made one with a mix of apple and pear, and it was not bad at all too! |
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