Fall. Sweater weather. The leaves start changing. There’s a chill in the air. While there’s no better fall activity than apple picking, what’s better than baking with all those just-picked apples? Not to mention the beauty of a Thanksgiving table mix-and-matched with an assortment of pies — with apples taking center stage, of course!
You may remember Javier Diaz Rodriguez '23 from last year’s holiday snowflake cookie recipe – today he is joined by Anyssa Moise '24, a Baking & Pastry Arts major and student assistant with Culinary Operations. They are showing us how easy it is to make your own festive fall pastries at home.
Their easy and delicious recipe for apple pie filling not only showcases the subtly sweet-tart nature of apples, but it can also be used to enliven two perfect holiday pastries: pies and turnovers.
After we run through how to make the filling, we will outline how to create an easy, from-scratch pie dough that can also be used to make a galette, which uses apple slices (rather than a blended pie filling) and is a more freeform version of a pie. (That gets explained in more detail in the dough section.)
Apples: 3 each, cored and peeled, then diced into uniform pieces
Apple Juice: 1 1/8 cup (284 grams)
Sugar: 3/8 cup (85 grams)
Salt: Pinch
Pumpkin Spice: ½ tsp (3 grams)
Cornstarch: ¼ cup (29 grams)
Butter: 1 Tbsp (16 grams)
1. We recommend Granny Smiths here because they impart a nicely subtle tart flavor to the finished filling. They also hold up well through the whole baking process. More sweet than tart, Honeycrisps are another good choice. (Or mix the two types of apples for a nice blend of flavors.) Choose unblemished fruit without bumps or bruises.
2. If you decide to dice your apples ahead of time, toss them with a little lemon juice to prevent browning.
3. Be careful to measure the cornstarch accurately. “I started using cornstarch because my mom has a gluten intolerance,” notes Anyssa, before clarifying that it can be a tricky ingredient — if you have more cornstarch than liquid, it forms a solid. It will look like a liquid but the moment a spoon hits it, it will stop it.
4. Cool the pie filling completely before adding it to your pastry. This will keep your pie or turnover from becoming soggy!
Watch Javier and Anyssa make the filling:
Pastry Flour: 2 ¾ cup (340 grams)
Shortening: ½ cup (114 grams)
Unsalted Butter: ½ cup (114 grams)
Water: ½ cup (114 grams)
Salt: 1 tsp (8 grams)
Sugar: 4 tsp (16 grams)
For more turnover and hand pie ideas, find yourself a copy of JWU alum Kelly Fields '02’s great baking primer, “The Good Book of Southern Baking.” Every page is filled with great tips and tricks, plus the book includes incredibly detailed recipes for biscuits, drop biscuits, monkey bread, and cinnamon rolls. The turnover recipes in “The Good Book” are much more detailed than the directions below and Fields uses a hybrid bread and cake flour dough (with lots of butter!). Using puff pastry, as Anyssa and Javier do, is a speedy variation.
1. While the original recipe called for just shortening, we decided to use a combination of fats. We substituted half butter for flavor and kept the other half shortening because of its high melting point.
3. Metal pie pans are excellent conductors of heat, which helps ensure that the pie crust is evenly browned and fully baked through.
4. When rolling out the pie dough, dust your work surface with rice flour, which won’t contribute additional gluten to the pie crust.
A hand pie is made with pie dough, while a turnover can be made with puff pastry dough (although there are lots of variations); both products are baked in the oven.
A galette is an open-faced and hand-formed pie with a rustic finish, and it’s a great way to showcase seasonal fruits. To make the galette filling, toss peeled, cored and sliced apples with granulated sugar, honey, cornstarch, ground spices (ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, and cloves), vanilla paste, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt.
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