Victory is Savory

My Savory Austrian Apple Pie won second place! The New England Apple Pie, sadly, was white noise among the other exotic offerings. There were more than 20 contest entries. I am convinced, though, that the New England Apple came out great. I went through two tries with the crust, and the second attempt was spot on. It was a flaky masterpiece. I do regret my overzealous heaping of the apple filling though, and my attempts at creative aesthetics for that one. I tried to do a little ring of apple cutouts around the center of the top crust. After baking, they looked like sloppy holes. Add that to the fact that the apples really cooked down during baking, leaving a vacuous cavern of crust to stare into. Suffice to say, it was a bit lacking in the aesthetics department but still on par with most of the other entries on the table.

The savory pie, on the other hand, was the only savory pie in the contest, and it had it all. The apple slices cooperated with being arranged in an artful spiral and the beautifully caramelized shallots and browned Gruyere cheese really tied it all together. And yes, I was "that guy" (or gal) who bought a slice of her own winning pie to know definitively how it came out. It was exquisite. It was so rich that one of the judges was even convinced there was bacon in it. Another hinted that I was robbed of first place because of a slight gender divide among the judges. Apparently, men have more of a sweet tooth. So what did I win, you ask. Second prize was a nice reusable farmer's market bag and $15 in farmer's market tokens. And you can look for my photo in the local paper! More info about the contest can be found on the farmers market Facebook page. I feel very validated in my pie efforts. There is one downside though - my deep Chantal pie dish that the New England Apple was in was broken by one of the staff during the clean-up process. I am being reimbursed, but it is still a bummer. Well, enough about all that. Without further ado, here is the recipe:

Savory Austrian Apple Pie
ingredients:
pastry dough for one pie crust
about 6 tart apples, peeled, cored, & sliced (I used Ginger Gold)
4oz. creme fraiche
1/3c. whole milk
3 eggs
1t. salt
1/2t. pepper
a pinch of chili powder
1/4lb. shallots, sliced into thin rings
2T. butter
1/4c. apple cider
1/4lb. Gruyere cheese, shredded

Roll out bottom crust and place in pie dish. Piece with a fork. Freeze 10 min while oven preheats to 375F. Remove crust from freezer, fill with pie weights, and bake for 12 min. Remove pie weights and bake an additional 12-15 min at the same temperature, until crust is golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool at least 20 min. Mix the creme fraiche, milk, eggs, salt, pepper, and chili powder in a large bowl. Heat 2T of butter in a large skillet over med-high heat. Add shallots and cook until caramelized. Remove from heat and add cider to shallots in skillet. Pour a small amount of filling mixture into cooked pie crust. Sprinkle with 1/4 of the cheese. Layer apple slices over to fill crust. Top with remaining filling, shallots, and cheese. Bake at 400F for 25 min, then reduce heat to 350F and bake for another 20 min, until top is nicely browned. Guten Appetit!

Current Pie Tally: 98

Dinner Party Pumpkin

Time to play catch-up again. We had some lovely neighbors over for dinner last week, so I made this Pumpkin Pie using the recipe I honed last year. It came out great as usual and got all of our thoughts turning toward Fall. As I write this, my apple pie contest entries are cooling on the counter. Based on appearance and creativity (and maybe aroma), my husband says the Austrian Apple is going to win. We'll see in about an hour!

Current Pie Tally: 96

Block Party Apple Crumb Pie

This was a huge hit at our neighborhood's block party over Labor Day weekend. Recipe is the same as the last version. To update you on the pie contest, I am planning to submit two: Savory Austrian Apple and New England Apple. Wish me luck! Until then, I have ambitions to bake the first Pumpkin Pie of the season this weekend.

Current Pie Tally: 95

Perfect Peach Pie

No summer is complete without a straight-up peach pie.

Perfect Peach Pie
ingredients:
pastry dough sufficient for two pie crusts
about 12 peaches, peeled, pitted, & sliced
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
4 T. arrowroot starch
1/2 t. cinnamon

Mix all the filling in a large bowl. Roll out bottom crust and place in pie dish. Pour filling in. Roll out upper crust, place on top, cut vent, and crimp to seal edges. Bake at 425F for 25 min, then reduce heat to 350F and bake for another 40-50 min, until crust is golden and fruit goo starts splashing out of the crust vent.

Current Pie Tally: 94

Apples are In

Our second trip to my mother's beach cottage this summer warranted this Apple Crumb Pie. I don't like to show up empty-handed. I used Gingergold apples from the farmer's market and it came out great. For the recipe, click here. I made my own standby pie crust rather than using the one in the recipe. I did pre-bake the crust. The other substitution is that I used 3T of fresh orange juice instead of the 1T fresh lemon juice and 2T apple cider. Also, I did not cook the apple filling separately as the recipe suggests. Instead, I threw everything into the pie raw and baked it for about 1.5 hours instead of 40 minutes.

In other farmer's market apple news, I've entered a pie contest on September 16. I might make two pies if they'll allow it - one sweet and one savory. Otherwise, I'll have to decide between a daring entry like Apple Shallot Pie and a traditonal two-crust Apple Pie or Apple Crumb Pie. "A panel of distinguished judges, including Takoma Park Mayor Bruce Williams, will judge the pies based on creativity, appearance, taste and texture. Prizes will be awarded..." If you live nearby, come on out to cheer me on. Judging is at 10:30am. Slices will be sold for charity afterwards.

Current Pie Tally: 93

"Thanks for Babysitting" Pie

This Cherry Blackberry Pie was a "thank you" for my mom. She watched my son for a week, so my husband and I could go gallivanting around Europe. It tasted like summer and fulfilled all of my expectations. I even got to try out mom's new food processor, which made me a touch jealous. I think it's nicer than my own - larger capacity and very strong motor. Without further ado, here is the recipe:

Cherry Blackberry Pie

ingredients:
pastry dough sufficient for two pie crusts
1 large bag of cherries, pitted and halved
2 pints of blackberries
1 cup sugar
1/4 c. quick-cooking tapioca

Mix all the filling in a large bowl. Squish it up with your hands to get the cherry-berry juices flowing. Roll out bottom crust and place in pie dish. Pour filling in. Roll out upper crust, place on top, cut vent, and crimp to seal edges. Bake at 425F for 25 min, then reduce heat to 350F and bake for another 50-60 min, until crust is golden and fruit goo starts splashing out of the crust vent.

Current Pie Tally: 92

Soupy Vacation Pie

I threw this Rhubarb Custard Pie together with all of the leftover rhubarb I had in the fridge. In retrospect, I should have been more meticulous about measuring the amount of rhubarb that went into the pie. I definitely added more than 4 c. As a result, the proportions of the pie were off and it didn't set properly. It's possible that leaving it in the oven a bit longer might have also solved the problem. At any rate, it tasted delicious, but the texture left something to be desired. The recipe can be found here. Bake at 400F for 50-60 min. (I took this one out of the oven after 48 min, which was a mistake).

Current Pie Tally: 91