I accept your challenge
So Giant rebranded their in-store magazine as Savory, and I have to say it is an improvement over the old one. I think I must have picked up the first issue the day (or close to the day) it came out. There was one article that caught my eye: "The Challenge." You might not know this about me but I can't resist a challenge. If I could frame everything in life that way maybe I'd get somewhere.
Anyhoo. This particular challenge: Peach and Apricot Pie. Of course I can do that. I've made peach pies before. And I've made pie dough from scratch. It's just really labor intensive and not my favorite thing. Your best bet is to make the dough ahead of time. That was my original plan but my apricots had other ideas, like a "24" countdown clock was ticking over them every time I opened the fridge. So I had to do it all in one day.
I made the dough entirely by hand. Sometimes the pastry blender just gets in the way so I just got in there and worked the butter into the flour myself. My only problem is not being able to divide the dough evenly; as usual I had too much for the top crust and not enough for the bottom. But nobody noticed or cared. I had precisely the right amount of fruit--four peaches and four apricots worked for me--but honestly? I could've used one more of each. I like a lot of fruit in my fruit pies.
I also used cardamom for the first time. I can't even describe the flavor. Earthy, maybe? It doesn't have the zing of cinnamon but definitely cuts the sweetness from the sugar. I can't wait to use it in one of my zillions (only slightly exaggerating) of cookie recipes this fall.
There were two options for the top crust: star cutouts or a triangle lattice. If I had more than one star cookie cutter I would've done the former; I really didn't want uniform stars. I hope to actually show you the triangle lattice; I'll get back to editing this post when I can.
Next month's challenge is a roast chicken. I've never done this because I don't like handling raw meat in something resembling its original form, but it's a challenge, so...
Anyhoo. This particular challenge: Peach and Apricot Pie. Of course I can do that. I've made peach pies before. And I've made pie dough from scratch. It's just really labor intensive and not my favorite thing. Your best bet is to make the dough ahead of time. That was my original plan but my apricots had other ideas, like a "24" countdown clock was ticking over them every time I opened the fridge. So I had to do it all in one day.
I made the dough entirely by hand. Sometimes the pastry blender just gets in the way so I just got in there and worked the butter into the flour myself. My only problem is not being able to divide the dough evenly; as usual I had too much for the top crust and not enough for the bottom. But nobody noticed or cared. I had precisely the right amount of fruit--four peaches and four apricots worked for me--but honestly? I could've used one more of each. I like a lot of fruit in my fruit pies.
I also used cardamom for the first time. I can't even describe the flavor. Earthy, maybe? It doesn't have the zing of cinnamon but definitely cuts the sweetness from the sugar. I can't wait to use it in one of my zillions (only slightly exaggerating) of cookie recipes this fall.
There were two options for the top crust: star cutouts or a triangle lattice. If I had more than one star cookie cutter I would've done the former; I really didn't want uniform stars. I hope to actually show you the triangle lattice; I'll get back to editing this post when I can.
Next month's challenge is a roast chicken. I've never done this because I don't like handling raw meat in something resembling its original form, but it's a challenge, so...
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