Apples for CBC Weekend Morning Show!

This morning on CBC's Weekend Morning Show with host Terry MacLeod, I made the following dishes using wonderful local apples from Wiens Farm, Piccola Cucina shells, and other local ingredients.

Fruit Platz
1 1/4 c. flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 c.butter (Notre Dame Dairies)
1 egg yolk (Nature's farm), beaten with
2 tbsp. milk (or a little more)

Sift flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together. Cream butter, add sited ingredients and blend. Combine egg yolk and milk, add to butter mixture and mix. Press into a greased 11" x 7" pa. Press 3 cp apple wedges, 3/4" thick (any fruit you like) I use about 5 apples, sliced and pressed in.

Combine:

3/4 c. sugar, 1/2 c. flour, 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. cinnamon (opt.) about 1/4 c. butter (or less) to make a crumb topping. Can sprinkle with almond slices (opt.) Sprinkle crumbs over fruit. Bake at 375 degrees F. oven for 50 minutes or until apples are done. Serve warm with ice cream, whipped cream, or plain. Good cold, also.

For rhubarb I sprinkle a bit more sugar & a bit of mixed in flour because of the tartness and juice.

Market Apple Pie

1 Piccola Cucina shell (sweetened or unsweetened, available often at St. Norbert�s Farmer�s Market but also at Co-op stores and Vita Health)
5 tart apples, cored and cut into wedges
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
pinch salt
cinnamon, to taste
1 tbs butter, crumbled
Optional:  1 tbs Ras El Hanout Or 1/2 tsp Thyme

Bake Pie crust according to the directions.  Mix apples and remaining ingredients together and place in baked pie shell.  Bake for 30 (+/- at 350�F)

Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Chicken and Biscuit Pot Pie

Holy Moly, people, you will need to try the dish I made on the Today Show this morning.  There may be a few more steps than your average "throw it all in the crockpot" meal, but I'm telling you, it's worth it.  Slow Cooker Chicken and Biscuit Pot Pie will be a hit this weekend, between the blizzards and the football and the "oh come on, January is almost over and I deserve some comfort food" attitudes.  Click on the link above for the recipe, and please enjoy these photos of when Savannah and I realized we were out of time, and when Carson randomly posed with a vase of flowers...

Photos by the lovely Samantha Okazaki

Peach, Nectarine, and Plum Pie

This is my favorite pie, and basically the only fruit pie I make. A crispy, flaky, super rich all butter crust with a sunset of colorful peaches, nectarines, and plums inside. A few summers ago, I made it for my parents, and my dad said it was the best pie he�d ever eaten. That�s a pretty big compliment, because the man loved desserts. I got his sweet tooth, and my mom�s taco tooth.  

We were never really a summer pie family. We had fresh strawberry pie in the spring, and pumpkin, pecan, and huckleberry at Thanksgiving. And my dad usually made an apple pie, with meticulously thin sliced apples, once every fall or winter. But our summers were 100 degrees without AC, not ideal baking conditions. Very ideal ice cream and swimming conditions. Suffice it to say, I didn�t have a whole lot of experience with summer fruit pies. Until a few years ago, I could probably count on one hand the number of times I�d eaten peach pie. But now I think there�s nothing better.

This pie, my go-to, is basically the stone fruit pie from a 2011 issue of Bon Appetit, plus Smitten Kitchen�s glorious all-butter crust. It�s a pie worth turning on the oven, even when it�s 90 degrees in Seattle. Even if you don�t have AC. 

It�s also a little tribute to my dad, who�s been gone one year this month. I thought of him the whole time I was making this pie. I think about him with each beautiful sunset, every weird joke, every time I hear wind chimes or the Rolling Stones, with every old Subaru wagon I see, every time I turn off a light to save a salmon, and all the times lately that I've caught myself walking his walk. I think of him, and miss him, every single day. 

Stone Fruit Pie with All Butter Crust

Adapted from this recipe and this recipe

Crust
1 recipe all-butter crust from Smitten Kitchen (her instructions are impeccable and so easy to follow)

Filling
4 pounds stone fruits (I used 2 giant peaches, 4 nectarines, and 4 plums)
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
Pinch fresh grated nutmeg
Zest of 1 lemon
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar

Crust
Follow the recipe for double pie crust (2 rounds). Once dough is fully chilled, roll out both disks to about 14 inch rounds, and continue to chill until ready to use. 

Filling
Slice fruits and remove pits, peel the peach slices. Add fruit slices and 1/3 cup sugar to a large bowl, and toss to coat. Let sit for 30-60 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Strain juice off of fruit, saving about 1/4 cup of the juice in a separate bowl. Add cornstarch, nutmeg, and lemon zest to juice and whisk well to combine. Stir back into fruit. 

Transfer one pie dough disk to pie dish, picking up the edges and letting it slump into the dish. Trim so about 1 inch of dough hangs over the edge. Fill with fruit. 

Cut remaining dough disk into strips to make a lattice crust. I went with a wide lattice on this one, but a thin lattice is super pretty and fun too.

Brush lattice topping and edges with beaten egg, and sprinkle turbinado sugar on top. Transfer pie dish to a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake for 40 minutes at 400 degrees, then turn heat down to 350, and bake another 30-40 minutes, until dough is golden and juices are bubbly. Cool dish on a wire rack.