With the holiday season now in full swing, I will share with you the two apple pies that I made for Thanksgiving. You could make them for a winter potluck, Christmas, your birthday if it’s coming up… or for any other reason, really. The first one is a more traditional, double crusted apple pie and the second is a Tarte Tatin – a French open-faced caramelized apple tart. I sent the more traditional pie with Matt to his family and apparently it went over quite well. I brought the Tarte Tatin to my friend Elysse’s family’s celebration. Despite being well received, there was so much left over food that I took a lot of it home with me and ate it for breakfast and snacks until it was gone – delish!
I have double labeled this post as IncrEDIBLE and Test Kitchen because I have never been head chef for the apple pies I have made in the past. So, despite having baked them, I never paid all that much attention to the details. Also, I substituted the types of apples and spices.
(MOSTLY) TRADITIONAL DOUBLE-CRUSTED APPLE PIE
2 large granny smith apples
1 large pink lady apple
3 large golden delicious apples
1/4 c sugar
2 tbsp honey (optional)
fresh juice from one lemon
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp cardamom
1 – 2 tbsp flour
sweet crust recipe, chilled (pate sucree)
butter, to brush
egg white, to glaze
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Peel, core and cut the apples into chunks. The pink lady and granny smith chunks should be smaller than the golden delicious chunks. Put all of the apples into a large bowl with the lemon juice, spices, flour, sugar and/ or honey. Set aside.
Divide the crust dough in half. Roll out each half on a cool, lightly floured baking surface with a chilled rolling pin. Gently pick up the first half of the dough and drape it into a deep pie plate. Arrange it so that it lays smoothly against the pan. Brush the bottom of the crust with a little bit of egg white or butter and poke it a few times with a fork (but do not pierce the crust all the way through).
Scoop the apples into the bottom crust, leaving excess liquid in the bowl. Make sure that the apples do not have too much space between them and that they form an attractive mound. Then, drape the top crust over the pie filling. Crimp the edges together with a fork or pie crimper and trim the excess crust. Cut a few vents in the top so that hot air can escape.
Brush the top with egg white and bake until the crust is golden and the apples are done. You can test the apples by inserting a knife through one of the vents. They should be soft, but not mushy.
TARTE TATIN
Try to find pretty looking, evenly rounded apples for this recipe, as part of the allure of this pie comes from its attractively arranged (and highly visible) apple slices. When it is finished, it is very sweet, so I recommend serving it in small slices with fresh, unsweet or very lightly sweetened whipped cream.
8 tbsp European style butter
turbidano or light brown sugar
3 large golden delicious apples
2 large pink lady apples
fresh lemon juice
unsweet crust recipe, chilled (pate brisee)
Preheat the oven to 375 F.
Roll out your crust into a 12″ round, slide it onto a cookie sheet and slip it into your fridge to chill.
Peel, core and slice the apples into 6ths, lenthwise. This is an ideal job for an apple corer/ slicer. After that, cut the pink lady slices in half (so that they are 12ths). For ease in the next step, separate the golden delicious and pink lady slices into different bowls.
Melt the butter in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the bottom and stir frequently. When it has begun to dissolve, arrange the apple slices in a circle around the outside edge of the pan, alternating one golden delicious and two pink ladies. The two apples cook at different rates, which is why the extra slicing and alternating is important. Fill the center with more apples. You may have a few slices left over.
Turn the heat up to high and cook until the apple juices mingling with the sugar and butter turn to a deep amber color. This should take 10-15 minutes. At this point, take the pan off the heat and flip the apples with a fork. Put the pan back on the heat and cook for another 5 minutes.
Remove the pan from the heat (this time you can turn off the stove) and top the apples with your chilled crust. Tuck the edges of the crust into the pan, being careful not to burn your fingers.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until the crust is browned. Allow the tart to cool on a rack for 20 minutes. Then (and this is the exciting part) loosen the edges with a knife and in one decisive action, flip the tart out onto the serving plate. I found that the best way to do this was to hold the plate to the pan with a couple of potholders and flip them together. If any apples stick to the pan, put them back into the tart where they should be and serve warm or at room temperature.
Right now there are a lot of gift guides and holiday themed posts floating around on my design blog circuit. These are two standout examples of art/ design in wintery white that I found in them. The holiday part isn’t that relevant, but I thought they were beautiful.
#1: Sara Paloma’s pottery – I kept seeing this pottery in pictures of people’s homes and thought it was tremendously elegant. Now I know who makes it. If I ever have a home with a big mantle (that my cat can’t get to), I would love to adorn it with a few of her lovely bottles.
#2: A (painted tin?) ceiling in Portland, ME from 3191
I dug through my fabric trunk for pieces of fabric to put together into Anthropologie-style potholders: bold, bright, patterned and vivacious. These are a few combinations I’m thinking about. (I scaled back on the ‘bright’ because my fabric collection leans a little more towards the ‘toned down.’)
A musician friend asked me to design a couple of posters for an upcoming jazz Christmas show she is doing. She gave me a bunch of ideas and this is what I came up with. I’m waiting for the final approval, before I can say that they are done. All of the designs are black and white for easy (and cheap) copying and postering.
For the first one, I ran with the idea of the styling of old-timey Christmas cards. The version she is actually using is slightly different than the more spare version below.
For the next one, I was inspired by this cool old jazz poster. I think that it communicates jazz and Christmas a little more clearly than the last one while being bold and eye-catching (although, as an illustration, I’m kind of attached to the mistletoe above).
And for the last version, I just got kind of silly. I went with the spirit of the tag line Skylar gave me, which is to say, reindeer.
Anyway, it should be a fun show. Skylar has a great voice and I know they have some fun things planned, so if you’re in Chapel Hill, come check it out.
Animal mummies! Greek monks! Ancient crocodiles! Kingfishers! The Hadza! The Uygurs! The island of South Georgia! A crazy and surreal national park in Madagascar! India! Oh National Geographic, I love you so.
This past weekend, I went into Anthropologie with a couple of friends. I felt like I was walking back into the fibers building, with all the pattern and colors. How lovely. Since I cant really afford anything in there (even in the sale room, I found out) but I do have the skills to make some of it, I came out with project ideas rather than merchandise. For example, that dingy blue apron I made my freshman year of high school is due to be replaced with something a little classier… something like this…
And who couldn’t use a few more potholders, really?
When Matt and I first moved into town, there was a house near to where we live that had been partially demolished, I think by a fallen tree. As seen before, the very tall trees in my neighborhood are nothing to mess with. It was kind of jarring to drive by it and see the refrigerator standing it the kitchen, still covered in big bright alphabet magnets. A year and a half later, the house has been demolished completely (this time, by a wrecking crew, no doubt) and nature is starting to creep up through the remaining foundation. Despite my qualms with leaving trash in the woods, it’s really interesting (and sad) to see a floor full of scratched linoleum tiles become covered in leaves and begin to vanish. In a way it almost seems like a memento mori (although I’m sure the house’s former inhabitants live someplace else now.)
I really like all the soft colors.
I forget where I first heard about this book, but it ended up on the library list I keep in the back of my journal (which I carry around with me). It just sounded like something I would enjoy, so I picked it up this week. And, do I ever! Oh man, a full book with a survey of historical anecdotes about the origin of pigments and dyes?! Reading the book jacket, I was like, “Purple from snails, yep, murex… logwood black… American indigo plantations -Janine… fugitive pigments in paintings… [snap shut, tuck under arm].” So I’ve been curled up on my couch for more than a few hours this weekend reading about ochres, charcoal, ink and graphite. The brighter colors are yet to come.
It must have been so much fun for the author, Victoria Finlay, to do the research for this book – traveling to the historical sources of colors and investigating their cultural, historical and spiritual significance. Cool.
