Monday, November 26, 2012

Skillet Apple Pie

Thanksgiving.  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.  I know I had/have a lot to be thankful for.

I was responsible for the apple pie at our Thanksgiving celebration in Brookhaven, MS this year, which put the pressure on a bit.  Up north this is always something Grandma is in charge of and she always delivers; I guess I hold myself to this standard, too.  I mentioned this to a patient I was seeing on my family practice rotation and she had just the recipe for me - Easy Skillet Apple Pie.  After a short description, I was sold.  (Really, she had me at easy)

It turned out great and was equally delicious.  Pardon these terrible pictures of the process, but I was having too much fun being in the kitchen with my mama to be burdened with Instagram quality photos.    You'll get the jist.

I'm fairly sure this is where she got the recipe; she brought me in a copied page which doesn't say its source.  I made a few changes, but nothing dramatic.

Preheat oven to 350.  Peel apples and cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges.  Toss apples with cinnamon and granulated sugar.


Melt butter in a 10-inch cast-ion skillet over medium heat; add brown sugar, and cook, stirring constantly, 1 to 2 minutes or until sugar is dissolved.


Remove from heat and place 1 piecrust in skillet over brown sugar mixture. {Put your piecrust in the skillet to measure it before melting the butter and brown sugar, I could have rolled mine a bit bigger so that it came up higher on the sides.  It was tricky to pinch the two crusts together once it is filled with the apples.}  Spoon apple mixture over piecrust, and top with remaining piecrust.  Whisk egg white until foamy. Brush top of piecrust with egg white; sprinkle with granulated sugar.  Cut 4 or 5 slits in top for steam to escape.


Bake for 1 hour to 1hour 10 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly, shielding with aluminum foil during the last 10 minutes to prevent excessive browning, if necessary.  {I set my timer for 50 mins to remind me to add the foil if I needed, which I did, but just around the crust.  Then I baked it for another 10 mins.}  Cool on a wire rack 30 mins before serving.  Serve with butter-pecan ice cream.  {I made mine the day ahead and it still tasted great.  We're not fancy, so we had vanilla ice cream.}


What made this so yummy was how the brown sugar and butter caramelizes in the bottom and even seeped up on the top.  Its not overwhelming or too sweet, just enough. And, well, I love that you can make it and store in in your skillet.  I'm a Minnesota girl, so using my skillet still comes as a novelty to me.


Easy Skillet Apple Pie 
[make-ahead, party-perfect]

Makes: 8-10 servings
Hands-on time: 20 mins {um, yeah right, peeling and cutting the apples took forever}
Total Time: 1hr 50min 

Ingredients:
2 lb Granny Smith apples
2 lb Braeburn apples*
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 c granulated sugar
1/2 c butter
1 c firmly packed light brown sugar
1 (14.1 oz) package refrigerated piecrusts
1 egg white
2 Tbsp granulated sugar**
Butter-pecan ice cream

*I could only find Granny Smith, so I used 4 lbs. of those and it tasted fine and we had some extra due to the piecrust 'issue' I mentioned above.  

**I only used about 1 Tbsp, which seemed to cover the crust enough.  Do as you wish.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Memphis Showered us with Love

Bo and I headed up to Memphis this weekend for a baby shower, one last trip out of Mississippi before Little Lady arrives.  It was great.  I really couldn't have asked for anything better - good company, good food, and lots of good memories.  Most notably, the running out of beer one hour into the festivities.  I did mention this was a baby shower, right?  I may have forgotten to mention this baby shower included a keg.  All in all, everything else ran quite smoothly and I was happy to see and visit with so many friends and family.  Bo and I are so lucky.

Our most gracious host, Ruth Ellen, opened her home to host the shower and with the help of my MIL, April and sister-in-law Emi it turned out amazingly.  Here are a few pictures of the fantastic food they prepared...



And the beautiful table centerpiece...




 Oh!  And the dessert table was not to be missed...




I must give much thanks to Jonathan Jerkins for taking all these fantastic pictures.  Thanks buddy.


Cheers to 34 weeks.  We're getting to the home stretch!