Rainy Sunday Apple Pie
I bought apples at the Union Square farmer's market (HUGE apples) and took them over to some friends' where we made a caramel-topped apple pie on Sunday. I should've watched my friend better as she made the crust: It came out perfect, flaky but solid enough to hold everything together. She did it all by hand but didn't have any big lumps of butter in her finished crust. I think I just need to be more patient when I'm cutting in the butter (she used a pastry blender).
It's amazing how a slice of warm apple pie with ice cream melting all over it can make me so happy. I had one of those "this is awesome" moments right in the middle of eating it.
Hi, Kim--
Great blog.
A couple of weeks ago, I bought some Northern Spy apples at the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market and made a pie with them. The apples made a wonderful pie.
I think the secret to a good pie crust is to use just enough water to hold the thing together and not to work the dough too much. Working it just activates the gluten and makes the baked crust tougher.
Yeah, I think you're right. I'm always disappointed when I roll out my crust and there are big blobs of butter all over, but they all melt away during baking and make the crust flakey. I just need to work on getting my blobs a little smaller.
My dough is always so moist to begin with, I rarely add much water at all. I'm especially bad with the food processor; I've discovered I like my mother-in-law's method of cutting in the butter with a pastry blender, then using a fork to stir in a tiny bit of water at a time. Maybe by the time I'm 50 I'll have perfected the crust part.
I've heard Northern Spy makes great pie; a coworker of mine always uses a couple different types of apples in her pie, and I think she named Northern Spy as one of them. Just think of all the apple pies being baked across the country just in this one weekend alone! It makes me want to get out the rolling pin.
I just went to your site and saw that you make your own sausage - it sounds terrific, and a great family activity. I just can't imagine the Whipple family (my family) doing something like that.
That's exactly how I make my pie crust! :) The pastry cutter works well because the blobs come out the right size. If you cut the butter into the flour with a food processor, the blobs are too small, I think.
You might want to look at the following place: http://www.sweettalkplus.com/cgi-bin/jboard/jboard.pl. It is the Sweettalk web site and has a recipe resource.
A great dessert is a brownie made with splenda and black beans (sic). There is a great sweetener caled agave you can find too.
PS If you serve a low carb meal you can use butter, cream, etc without any adverse effect on glucose levels. The maple syrup is out though.
There's also Stevia, which is an herb that is just as sweet if not sweeter than sugar. For diabetics (my mom is one) it's said to be helpful because it nourishes the pancreas and helps restore pancreatic function. I'm not sure if that claim is backed up by the FDA, it's just something I've read about the herb. Anyway, good luck with dessert.
How about a really good fruit salad? They can stand alone or alongside another dessert.
My fiancee and I use Splenda all the time...from sprinkling on strawberries, to green tea to baking with it. It definitely works 1-to-1 and I've not had any problems with side effects.
Incidentally, my father is diabetic as well and we've made him several weight watcher desserts in the past that almost never call for added sugar.
A brownie made of Spenda and black beans??!! You have GOT to be kidding me.
You all have good suggestions (except Todd, perhaps, who of course does not like the prospect of eating brownies made with black beans, as picky and unadventurous as he is - but I still love him).
I have a couple of Weight Watchers cookbooks that I'll have to take a look at; that's a good idea.
I'm now leaning toward a pannacotta made with whole milk or cream, since fat's not the issue. I'll try using one of the artifical sweeteners you suggested.