Category: pie

i know this looks like a fall or winter dessert, but after the cold, rainy weekend we just had here, we’re not making any excuses for cooking up tons of apples in brown sugar and cinnamon. besides, sunday was pi day, and the culinary calendar demanded that we make a pie of some kind. the ice cream was just a bonus. now with that out of the way, i’m going to make a bold statement: this apple tart may be the greatest thing i’ve ever baked.

it’s a dessert you’ll dream about, waiting impatiently to bake a new one before devouring it in mere hours. a bite of the tart combined with a spoonful of the ice cream…there were literally no words exchanged while we ate.

there’s not much the girl and i don’t have in the kitchen since we moved in together, but when i received a few gift certificates, i got myself a shiny new tart pan. bon appétit magazine has probably 2 tart recipes per issue, so i didn’t have to look far for inspiration. although the recipe may look a bit daunting, it’s actually pretty simple when you get down to it, which is what makes it so delicious in the first place.

take 2 lbs granny smith apples, cored, peeled and diced…

…and cook down with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. you could stop right here and just eat, but i promise it gets even better.

there is a quick caramel sauce that we almost considered omitting in fear that the tart would be sweet enough without it, but we were so glad we kept it in – not only does it give a great base to which the apples can adhere, it also bubbles over during baking, adding extra (duh) gooey caramelization to the crust.

so once you have your apples piled in the tart, just top with a simple crumb mixture (not pictured here) made of butter, brown sugar and flour (and nuts if you like). you end up with a beautiful golden crispy crust.

and let’s not forget about the ice cream. it only takes a few hours to make, but it’s best if you do it ahead of time and serve it with the tart hot from the oven. if you have guests over, the smell will drive them crazy until it’s time to eat. but just wait until they actually take a bite. i’m not saying this tart will make you some new best friends for life, but it can’t hurt.

ok fall, you win. it just dropped about 15 degrees here in dc, the leaves have changed color, and it’s dark by 6pm. even though i’m counting down the days until the fireflies return to our front porch, i’m excited about the prospect of months of warming comfort food. sweaters and soups and…PIES.

granny smiths are pretty much the reigning champ of baking apples. i usually go 100% granny smith in my recipes, but you can mix it up with whatever you can get at the market.

this is probably the best part of the whole pie process. you mix the apple slices with sugar and cinnamon in a big bowl. then, you sit around and eat a bunch of the slices and pretend like it never happened before arranging the rest in a pie crust. at the bottom of the bowl, the apple juice, along with the sugar and cinnamon, forms a delicious syrup. it’s really tempting to just drink this syrup, but if you’re feeling less gluttonous, you can just pour it over the apple slices.

ooooh, pretty.

the best part about this pie is not having to worry about a fickle top crust. the crumb topping is easy to make and crisps up perfectly. it’s like having an apple pie and an apple crisp at the same time.

it’s been fall for less than a month and i’ve already made this pie twice. and i see another one coming in the near future. you can whip one of these up in about an hour and have it ready for some vanilla ice cream. it’s a good thing.

a week and a half in our new place, and this pie is already the third thing we’ve baked. the very first was a batch of chocolate chip cookies (to test out the oven), followed by blueberry muffins. but this past weekend we had a few people over for a bbq and i knew we had to have a pie. peaches are out in full force in dc right now, and peach pie + ice cream = good times.

now that we’re completely moved in and pretty much settled, we can really start enjoying summer. and now that we have a grill (which we plan to use several times a week), it feels more like summer than ever.

peach pie is one of the simplest pies to make, but also one of the most refreshing and delicious. there are few foods that actually taste like summer, but eating a slice of this pie just makes you feel like school’s out and nothing else matters except for taking a nap in the afternoon sun.

the key to this pie is getting good ripe peaches – once you’ve got that, you can just let the fruit do the work. so, you should probably get on making this pie, like immediately. don’t wait for the weekend – get yourself to the store, or better yet, the farmer’s market, and share the peach pie love now.