Apple Pie 2.0

I may have said this before, but now seems like a good time to say it again. I am pie challenged and I use frozen pie crust (not the ones that come in a pan, rather, the flat ones). I came up with what I call " a cook's apple pie". Fried apples with disks of pie crust baked like cookies only takes 15 minutes to cook, far less time than a traditional pie. I find this style of "pie" can go from rustic in a small canning jar, to comforting over a bowl of vanilla ice cream, to contemporary arranged just so on a small dessert plate with an artfully placed drizzle of caramel sauce. It is important to note that if you save your scraps from other pies, or even from making a big batch of these "pies", you can easily adjust this recipe for single servings. When making a single "pie", I just use the very scientific measurements of "small pinches" for the spices.

Deconstructed Apple Pie

2 Frozen pie crusts, thawed

8 apples, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1/2 cup sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

2tsp cinnamon, plus extra for sprinkling

1 tsp cloves

1/2 cup water

2tbsp butter

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (f). Place the pie crust flat on a cookie sheet and cut out 2 inch rounds using pastry rings, running a paring knife around the rim of a drinking glass works well for this or really any 2 inch shape. I used an apple shaped cookie cutter. Remove the "scraps"  and re-wrap them for a later use, or if you didn't quite get 8 rounds out of your dough, make a couple more from the scraps. Sprinkle the dough with cinnamon and sugar to your liking. Bake the crusts for 15 minutes or until golden. 

Meanwhile put the apples, measured sugar, measured cinnamon, cloves water and butter into a large frying pan. Let it cook over medium heat until the apples are fork tender, the liquid has thickened and coats the apples.

Divvy up the apples into 8 servings. Your crusts should be done just as you are spooning out the final portion of apples. Use a spatula to place your crusts on top of your apples, and voila! Homemade apple pie!  

A song with the word "Golly" in the title has to be appropriate when apple pie is involved! But just as the pie is deconstructed, just a little disheveled, so is the situation described in the song...

Wintry Roasted Carrots

One of my favorite lines from Twin Peaks is of course food related. "Nothing beats that taste sensation when maple syrup collides with ham!" Really though, you could use any salty meat..sausage, bacon. It's all about the salty/sweet. This dish speaks to the season, is super easy and only has three ingredients! Carrots and other root vegetables that usually store energy as starch, convert it into sugar as a sort of antifreeze when cold weather hits taking them to the peak of their sweetness and flavor. When I made these for the first time, the sweet maple and carrots with the smokey bacon filled my kitchen with the cheery smell of winter. You know, the smell of sweets baking and fireplaces blazing...It's just wonderful. You might up the charm of this dish by adding replacing some or all of the carrots with parsnips.

Maple Bacon Roasted Carrots

2lbs carrots

3 tbsp maple syrup

4 pieces of good quality bacon

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees (F). Line a shallow baking pan with foil (maple syrup burns and is sticky stuff...it will ruin your pans in you try to cook it straight on the pan). Peel the carrots, cut off the tops and trim off the ends. Cut the carrots into quarters to form sticks (as you can see in the photo). Lay out your carrot sticks in the baking pan. In a frying pan, render the fat of your bacon by cooking it over medium-low heat. Cook it until it's quite crispy. You really want a lot of liquid fat, 2 tbsp worth. Remove the bacon from the fat and let it cool on a paper towel before crumbling and setting it aside. Pour the bacon fat and the maple syrup over the carrot sticks, making sure they are all evenly coated. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the carrots are nice and tender. Sprinkle the bacon rubble over the carrots and serve! EASY BREEZY!