I have another confession to make...
...I talk to my food. Is anyone really THAT surprised?
...I talk to my food. Is anyone really THAT surprised?
Quite some time ago, I was compared to Anne Burrell, or as I like to call her: the female version of Guy Fieri. If you’ve ever seen her show Secrets of a Restaurant Chef on the Food Network, you will quickly notice that she refers to her mushrooms as "sexy" and quite frequently yells out sayings like, “Oh, yeah! Great things are happening in this pan!” I am guilty of the aforementioned and it’s refreshing to see that she got her own show out of it. It's like watching a recording of me, minus the bleached hair. Does opportunity knock twice or did I just miss my chance?
Being that the weather is cooling down in sunny San Diego, I was in the mood to make a pie. Is it wrong that I had plans to go out last night and I chose to stay home and bake something? To me, there's nothing better than a warm slice of pie (accompanied by a big scoop of ice cream, of course) on a crisp night. Costco makes a delicious caramel apple pie with a streusel topping so I decided to try my hand at it. Instead of a streusel topping, I went with a double crust pie. I'm all about the crust! I also did some research to see what kind of caramel apple pie recipes were out there and I was shocked to see that every recipe called for store bought caramel sauce or caramel candies. Negative. I made my own caramel!
Coming up with the filling was quite challenging as apple pies tend to be made with strong spices. Since I was adding the caramel, I didn't want the spices to overpower the taste of the caramel but I didn't want it to be too sweet so I really had to edit and re-edit my measurements. Remember: you can always add to, but you can't take away!
A few apples and dashes of cinnamon later and I was ready to put my pie in the oven. I felt like Squirt from Finding Nemo and I found myself telling my pie, "OK! We're going to have a great bake today!" There's nothing worse than spending so much time and energy on something for it to fall apart at the very end. Food for thought.
Being that the weather is cooling down in sunny San Diego, I was in the mood to make a pie. Is it wrong that I had plans to go out last night and I chose to stay home and bake something? To me, there's nothing better than a warm slice of pie (accompanied by a big scoop of ice cream, of course) on a crisp night. Costco makes a delicious caramel apple pie with a streusel topping so I decided to try my hand at it. Instead of a streusel topping, I went with a double crust pie. I'm all about the crust! I also did some research to see what kind of caramel apple pie recipes were out there and I was shocked to see that every recipe called for store bought caramel sauce or caramel candies. Negative. I made my own caramel!
Coming up with the filling was quite challenging as apple pies tend to be made with strong spices. Since I was adding the caramel, I didn't want the spices to overpower the taste of the caramel but I didn't want it to be too sweet so I really had to edit and re-edit my measurements. Remember: you can always add to, but you can't take away!
A few apples and dashes of cinnamon later and I was ready to put my pie in the oven. I felt like Squirt from Finding Nemo and I found myself telling my pie, "OK! We're going to have a great bake today!" There's nothing worse than spending so much time and energy on something for it to fall apart at the very end. Food for thought.
The slits in the pie serve two purposes: for the steam to escape and for you to determine when your pie is done. When making a pie with a fruit filling, it's all about the bubbles. If the filling is boiling quickly and the filling has remained inside, step away from the pie; it's not done. If you see a slow boil and the filling is oozing out like a delicious volcano, grab your oven mitts; it's done!
Now THAT'S a pie!
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