Dutch Apple Pie Flambé

My first attempt at a Dutch Apple Pie went a little awry. Everything went really well up until the crust, which split and cracked during it's pre-bake. I asked Jeremy if I should re-make the crust and finish the pie later or just use the pie crust as it was. We (I) decided that the crust was okay as it was and I evidently angered the pie gods.

When the first full bake cycle was done, the crumb topping hadn't browned as nicely as I would have liked and Jeremy suggested that I put it under the broiler. This seemed like a good idea. I set the timer for 3 minutes and continued my conversation. About a minute and a half into the time, I smelled something odd and decided that I should check the pie.

The pie was on fire.

I pulled it out of the oven and looked at it for a minute, then blew the flames out. I'm pretty sure that huffing and puffing is not in the manual for effectively putting out kitchen fires, but it quickly became Plan A and fortunately worked. Plan B involved moving the pie to the sink and dousing it with water.

The good thing about Plan A is that it left the pie mostly in tact. If you think of the crumb topping as a disposable outer shell, as you would with salt crusts, it's still a tasty pie. It's not going to win any beauty contests, but it will do.

Two years, two fires in my kitchen. I've now set a precedent.

Cupcakes (finally)

I said a while ago that I would be making cupcakes. I finally managed to do so after my last final of the semester--a result of therapeutic baking. I made Three-vanilla cupcakes, which I found on Tastespotting. The three vanillas were vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, and vanilla sugar (made from storing sugar with a vanilla bean for a week). The recipe is "woefully accurate" in that it makes exactly 20 cupcakes. This was all the batter I had left to lick from the bowl:

The naked cupcakes turned out pretty:It seemed almost a shame to cover them up, but the final outcome was tasty, but didn't match the gorgeous photos from the recipe. I needed a different piping tool and firmer frosting. The cupcakes were transported to Indiana in a hacked-up cereal box, which I thought was fairly clever. I should have remembered to pick up a pastry box from the grocery, but I didn't.

Realization

I suppose it's not exactly a new revelation that I'm a stress-baker. When things get extra busy or stressful, I have a compulsion to bake. The last month, I've wanted, more than anything to make cupcakes. Very vanilla cupcakes. However, there simply hasn't been enough time.

This weekend, I managed to find enough time to make almond poppyseed muffins, which made me quite happy indeed. Maybe this weekend, I'll manage the cupcakes. :)

Biscottish?

I decided once again to make a King Cake for Mardi Gras. Unfortunately, I didn't have my recipe handy. I really think I know where it is, but haven't the energy to go and look through the basket. I found an alternate one on the internet and made my way to the grocery. I made the dough, as instructed, waited the couple hours for it to rise and ended up with this: Not risen. Obviously not risen. The dough still tasted good, though. I think the yeast may have been a little...dead. It was on the top shelf under halogen lights in the grocery store. Maybe a little warm for the little guys. I may mention it to the grocery. I'll try to proof the other package before I do, though. Anyway...to not waste what seemed like perfectly good dough, I used my workout time on Tuesday to do some strength training in rolling out the dough to about a quarter-inch thick and cut it into cute baklava shapes and baked it.
Pretty things came out of the oven. They were lighter than they looked and had a not-unpleasant texture. I figured that if they weren't going to be good, at least they could look pretty.
Bring on the glaze...pretty, pretty glaze...
And viola! A yummy-lookin' dessert! What's better is that they actually tasted good, too. I took them in to the office and while I understand that grad students will eat anything, they won't come back for seconds unless it's at least decent. People came back for seconds.

They ended up like very light biscotti. I kept saying that they were biscotti-ish, which naturally turned into biscottish. I didn't taste them with coffee, but I would imagine that to be the matching flavor.

Quote from the process: "I don't know what went wrong, but I'm trying to make it right. The problem is that I can't replicate it if it turns out really good."