A few months ago, I made my first attempt at homemade pie crust, something that I'd shied away from because, well, I've had a lot of bad homemade pie crusts and seen a lot of recipes and tips for "fool-proof" pie crust. These two indicators led me to believe making pie crust is tricky, and since Pillsbury helpfully markets a delicious ready-made refrigerated crust, I'd never seen the point in tackling it myself.
Nowadays, though, I'm more curious about whether homemade versions of everything are better, and approach new experiences with a "How hard can it be, really?" sort of attitude. What finally led me to try making my own crust was wanting to make a lemon meringue pie at 9:30 on a Friday night and not feeling like going to the store for the aforementioned Pillsbury crust. I seized the moment, and the crust actually turned out really well. It's not that hard. The secret, as I'd read many times, is very cold butter and ice water. I still have some trouble with the whole rolling out dough process, but I'm getting better.
Anyway, the recipe made two 9-inch crusts, so one went in the bottom of the lemon meringue pie pan and one went in the freezer, to be pulled out months later for tonight's dessert.
I had planned to make an apple galette -- or my version of one, anyway, in which I put a pie crust on a baking sheet, fill it with sugared fruit, and fold up the edges. It's a simple, rustic-looking dessert and seemed like the perfect finished for tonight's inelegant pasta dinner.
I peeled, cored, and sliced four Macintosh apples of dubious quality. The flesh was surprisingly white and very juicy. Almost too juicy - the texture was firm, but still sort of spongy. I'd read that Macintosh apples were very good for baking, so I picked these up at the local grocery store, which was sheer laziness -- I probably should have waited until I could get some local ones at the greenmarket. These were billed as "Produce of USA" at the Hispanic grocery store down the street, though, so that should have been fine, right? Toss them with brown sugar , cinnamon, and a squeeze of lemon juice and they should work, I figured.
I got the apples all ready and then turned my attention to the thawing crust. I started unrolling it, and found that it was still pretty stiff, but I needed to get that thing in the oven, so I tried to coax it flat. Mistake! You can't rush pastry dough. It cracked into a bunch of pieces.
The best idea I could come up with to avoid wasting the crust was a cobbler of sorts. I put the apples in a shallow baking dish (so much for that lovely rustic galette), dotted them with a couple tablespoons of unsalted butter, and arranged the pastry strips on top, finishing them with an egg wash. I used the whole egg, which I read about in some recipe online, but I think just using the yolk would have yielded a better finish.
After about an hour in a 325-degree oven, the dish was smelling divine. While it cooled, I whipped some cream, remembering to pop the stainless steel mixing bowl and whisk (okay, the beater for the electric hand mixer) into the freezer for a few minutes first, which makes the cream thicken so much faster. That's a truly handy kitchen tip, folks.
The cobbler, while completely edible, was a little disappointing. The crust didn't get quite as golden brown as I'd have liked. The apples had gone mushy, and I like the pieces to retain their shape and crunch somewhat. I think fresher apples, or maybe another variety, might have helped. The flavor was okay -- a little too sweet, maybe, although the apples had a slight tartness to them that balanced that out. I think I needed some other spices -- maybe a pinch of ginger, or some nutmeg. Some toasted walnuts might have made a nice addition, too.
Despite being less-than-spectacular, this dish was totally adequate as a quick weeknight dessert. And who am I trying to kid? I'd rather have a so-so dessert than no dessert at all.
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