Sugar Nut

Then, we had our Stealing Santa! My gift was a pack of Kit Kat Chunky, which I bought in Duty Free (I still don’t understand what happened to Kit Kats in Brazil! We miss ‘em). I was lucky and got a purple FOM! For those who don’t know, FOM is a type of foam, or whatever, that they use to make some super nice pillows!
After all the joy and fun with our gifts, there comes the dessert! And after much thinking, trying to choose among milk ice cream, pineapple or strawberry sorbets, Peach Melba, and many other options, I decided to go with the apple pie! It’s one of my favorite desserts, especially if accompanied by a good ice cream or Chantilly. In this situation, I went for the second option, and made one of my staples, Duce de Leche Chantilly.

For my pie, I used the dough from Pillsbury Baking book, which I recently bough! It is extremely easy to make (especially if done in the food processor! Hahah), and the result was a smooth and beautiful dough, very easy to work with! It yields enough dough to make 2 pies, or one with base and top. The filling is enough for a big pie, or two medium ones (I was in this second option). One of the pies was lattice topped, and the other covered with Streusel, which was already presented here.

Classic Apple Pie
Yields 8 to 10 slices

Dough (can be made with up to 2 days in advance)
From Pillsbury: The Complete Book of Baking

2 cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
150g butter, cold
5 to 8 tablespoons ice water
1 egg yolk (to brush the dough, when baking)

In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut the butter into cubes and using your fingertips, a fork, a harder spatula or even a dough blender, keep cutting the butter, to incorporate it into the flour until you get a texture that looks like a wet sand or coarse flour. Add 4 tablespoons ice water and continue mixing, now with your hand. You should stay with a consistent and uniform dough. Add more water, one tablespoon at a time, until you form the dough into a ball. Put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (if possible, a few hours).

Divide the dough in two (one slightly larger than the other), and open the two halves in the shape of your pan (if circular, the pan should be 25cm in diameter). Place the largest in the bottom of the pan, pressing well to remove possible air bubbles. Using a fork, poke it, to release any air that could still be there. The smaller part of the dough is for the top. Keep the two parts in the fridge while preparing the filling.


Filling
(Same from my favorite apple pie)

6 green apples (or any other that is crisp and tasty)
2 tablespoons flour
2/3 cup sugar (I like using demerara, for fruits)
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 180ºC.
Peel and slice (or dice) the apples.
In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the apples and toss to coat.

Place the apples in the pie shell, which was in the fridge. Cover with the top dough, and press the edges with your fingers, so that the pie is firmly closed. If you use all the filling for this pie, you should end up with one of those beautiful pies from Mickey Mouse, tall and yummy! Heheh

To finish, make some slits on the top to allow the steam to leave, and you can brush the dough with an egg yolk, so it browns in the oven.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes (until it is brown and beautiful). Serve it warm with ice cream or a delicious Dulce de Leche Whipped Cream!

PS: I did not take a picture of the streusel apple pie. It was over before I could do so... Shame on me