Monday, November 12, 2012

Kitchen Queen Contest Entry #9 - Topher's Blue Ribbon Apple Pie

Kitchen Queen Contest Entry #9 - Topher's Blue Ribbon Apple Pie



I didn't think I had any recipes with me being that most of my knick-knacks, trinkets, bibelots, treasures and fur pieces, are in storage in sunny Bonita Springs Florida. However, I discovered this gem in my trusty 1980's era briefcase and knew that I just had to share this with you Bitches. I discovered this at a restaurant in Chicago called "The Prairie" (I believe it was in Printer's Row) and soon it made it's way to the pages of Bon Appetit (January 1993). This is a deep dish apple pie with some nuts (insert pun here), a bit of carmel/chocolate and all the tartness you deserve (well, maybe not ALL). Scrumptious can not begin to describe the taste of this dish and if I had the means (and the test kitchen) to make it again, this would be a fabulous prelude to......

Blue Ribbon Apple Pie

8 servings

Crust
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick bitches) chilled (not frozen) unsalted butter and cut into pieces
1/3 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening, cut into pieces
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg, beaten
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
2 tablespoons ice water (approx measure)

Combine flour and salt in medium bowl. Cut butter and shortening in, with a fork, until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in sugar, egg and vinegar. Mix in just enough ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, to form dough that holds together. Divide the dough in half and flatten each half into a disc. Wrap each in saran wrap and chill 4 hours or overnight.

Filling
2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 all purpose flour
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 pounds tart green apples (such as Granny Smith) - peeled, cored and cut into 1/4" slices
1/4 cup (1/2 stick Bitches) unsalted butter

Combine first 7 ingredients in a large bowl. Add apples and toss them to coat. Melt butter in a large heavy skillet over medium high heat. Add the apples and cook until the apples are slightly softened....about 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F...on a floured surface, roll out 1 dough piece to a 14 inch diameter round . Transfer the dough to a 9" deep dish glass pie dish. Fit the dough into the dish and turn the edges leaving 1/2 inch overhang. Fold the overhang under and let it rest on the rim (it's tired after all that pounding - take a sip from the vodka fountain, if parched) Line the crust with foil and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake 10 minutes. Remove the foil and weights/beans and bake until the crust is set but has no color - about 5 minutes.
Cool.

Streusel
3/4 cup all purpose flour
4 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons (that's 1/4 stick Bitches) unsalted butter
3 1.4 ounce chocolate covered English Toffee Bars (such as Heath), chopped

1 large egg beaten with 2 tablespoons water (glaze)

Combine the flour and sugar and using a fork, mix in the butter until it resembles coarse meal and then stir in the toffee.

On a floured surface, roll out the second disc of dough to 14" round diameter. Mound (not mount but hey, whatever) the apple filling into the pre-baked pie crust and sprinkle the streusel over the pie. Top this with second crust. Trim the dough leaving a 1/2 overhang and pinch the crusts together (as in a gentle pinch, not a titty twister) to seal the edges. Brush pie with the glaze. Cut 5 slits into the stop to allow steam to escape.

Bake until the crust is golden and the apples are tender - about 55 minutes. Cool the pie one hour.

What you do with it, and/or serve with it, is completely up to you.

51 comments:

  1. Chocolate streusel and apples sounds like a sort of wacky combo, but I'm trusting Topher on this.

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    Replies
    1. PEENEE: “Wacky” is the secret ingredient here on Infomaniac.

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    2. the combination makes a great exfoliant that you can apply to your epidermis, whilst you are doing yoga!

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    3. I am still trying to erase the image of Peenee in a naked downward dog position.

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  2. It sounds delightful and absolutely naughty with the toffee bits in there...

    I'll try it!

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  3. Fancy apple pie with crunchies!! *droooool*
    OH LORDY YOU PEOPLE ARE KILLING ME WITH THESE!!

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  4. Please sir, can I have some more... :)

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  5. On a side note- I love how the comment placement has my eye level at cocks. ---------->

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    Replies
    1. UTE: It appears to have shifted since you left your comment!

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    2. Asscrack, at the moment. The ol' 'Third Eye Blind'. Ring a ding doo. The barking starfish. Rear exit. The croaking smokehole. Butt.

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  6. Oh my... definitely the best recipe of the contest.


    AND I MEAN IT THIS TIME!


    and I fully agree with Ute ---------->

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    Replies
    1. JON: Are you familiar with the English expression, “Shut your pie hole?”

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    2. Never heard it before but it sounds like a wonderful recipe. I'd be delighted to give it a try.

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    3. HUGGY JON: Same goes for your “cake hole.”

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    4. Jon, you're now pointing (via keyboard) at a hard boiled egg cup fulla hairy gonad. This blog is getting more postmodern by the minute.

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    5. Should have thought about the shifting as more replies came in. Aaarrrgh!
      Originally, It was pointing at the cookie monster.

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  7. Replies
    1. NORMA: You with your salt and caramel and Topher with his toffee and apples…you’re two sweet Bitches.

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    2. I am honored to be in such magnificent company as Katherine Hepburn....I mean, Miss Desmond.

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    3. if my head wasn't shaking so much, i'd slap you.

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    4. Not even going to make a crack about 'Parkinsons' here. I have standards. *ducks*

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  8. Very nice, especially the crust. Plus, we don't have to wash our hands for this one.

    PS: Mistress, did I win yet?

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    Replies
    1. VON LX: WASH YOUR HANDS, DAMMIT!

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    2. JON: I suppose if Isabella Rossellini can depict insects having sex in Green Porno, June Whitfield can portray a bacterium!

      By the by, does everyone in the UK have a CBE?

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    3. I'm aiming for a DBE, myself. After all, there is nothing like one! Jx

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    4. JON: Ha!

      ♫Nothing in the world♫

      I’ve heard that Ken Dodd’s buckteeth are insured for £4 million.

      Oh, and he’s an OBE, proving that not everyone is a CBE

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  9. "Combine first 7 ingredients in a large bowl. Add apples and toss them to coat."

    Every thing was going so well until this point.
    I think that my coat was hanging a little too far away and now the mixture is all on the floor...
    Does anyone have a mop handy perchance?

    Next time... Should I perhaps move the coat a little closer or... just toss a little harder?

    Anyway... it looks from the picture you have provided Topher... to be the perfect apple pie. Thanks for a wonderful recipe....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. PRINNY: Infomaniac is not responsible for dry cleaning costs.

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  10. It's just calling for a dollop of clotted cream. Yummy! Jx

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    Replies
    1. JON: Join us on our cream tea road trip, won’t you?

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    2. Ewww. Creampies - how very sordid. Jx

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    3. OH....the first time i had
      clotted cream, the british are geniuses!

      Delete
  11. Could One use Midget Gems instead of the toffee bar?

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    Replies
    1. MITZI: We await Topher’s response.

      In the meantime, I clicked on the link and have a question…

      What does “diddy” mean where it says midget gems are “nice and diddy?”

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    2. Tiny. As in "the Diddymen" or indeed "P Diddy" Jx

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    3. Oops...my Ken Dodd comment was posted elsewhere on here but you'll find it.

      I thought "ickle" meant tiny.

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    4. We're like Eskimos in the UK - hundreds of different words for more or less the same thing... Jx

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    5. ..thus providing hundreds of possible answers to the musical question: Cain't somebody please tell me what 'diddy wah diddy' means??
      RULE BRITTANIA!

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    6. On Manfred Mann's "Doo Wah Diddy": "singer Paul Jones met the songs' writer Jeff Barry in New York and asked him what the title meant. Barry replied 'It means I'll never have to work again'."
      Jx

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    7. I suppose one could use Midget Gems but not sure why "one" would.....midgets would be better if you must.

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  12. A Quater of LTD are situated in Blackburn, Lancashire. It's just the type of word they'd use to describe something very small or tiny, it's not a word Mitzi likes to use.

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  13. As much as I'd love to diddle around here all night with you Bitches, I've another recipe entry to crank out.

    Stay tuned.

    ReplyDelete