Luckily, I had two books that were longing to be read—they had been on my bedside table for a long time; a stack of magazines that had started to gather dust; and, a collection of cookbooks that have not been revisited for sometime.
Today, I decided to go through my horde of cookbooks. I heard or read somewhere that one needed only two cookbooks: one, a cookbook that served as a general go-to or manual, containing basic cooking terms and processes. Better if the book had a measurement conversion table. Best still if the book contained a substitution table. The second cookbook would be one containing tried and tested recipes—usually one that is of one’s country or a notebook filled with recipes from dear mama, siblings and friends. I find this to be true as I go through my books in my collection. But I will stretch the number to about 6—the number of dog-eared and food stained go-to books that I have.
The rest, I continue to treasure because 1) I love old cookbooks for the memories they evoke;
2) I love dessert cookbooks for the possible challenges to give a recipe a try;
3) I love cookbooks containing dishes of other countries for the cultural insights they give and sometimes for the fond memories of a country visited.
I expect to be fully recovered in a day or two and alas, I will not be able to go through all of my cookbooks one by one. But for now, I count myself lucky to have them for company.
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I found that there are a couple of recipes I would like to do as soon as I am energized enough to get the ingredients and spend time in the kitchen.
One of them is apple pie. I need to practice my pie crust making skills again in time for the Christmas season. ‘Coz it won’t be Christmas in my house without the scent of cinnamon and apples baking in the kitchen.
I have used this recipe for the apple pie filling for the longest time. Maybe this could become a keeper in your files as well.
Old Fashioned Apple Pie
Recipe for two-crust pie (check out prior post for this or you can use your own recipe)
Apple Pie Filling
½ c sugar
½ c brown sugar, firmly packed
¼ c flour
½ t cinnamon
¼ t nutmeg (optional)
1/8 t salt
¼ c butter
6-8 medium sized tart apples, peeled, cored and sliced (6 cups)
2 t lemon juice (calamansi will do)
Prepare 2-pie crust recipe and divide into 2. Roll out one-half of the recipe to fit a 9-inch pie plate. Roll out the 2nd crust and set aside.
Mix together the first 6 ingredients in a small bowl. Set Aside.
Sprinkle apples with lemon juice in large bowl; add 1 ½ cs of sugar mixture; toss gently to coat apples evenly. Arrange apples in prepared pastry shell, sprinkle with remaining ½ c sugar mixture. Cut up the butter and put on top of the apples.
Cover top with remaining pie crust and tuck this under the lower crust before crimping. This seals in the juices of the pie. Press edges together with the tines of a fork. Cut gashes on top of the pie to allow steam to escape.
Brush the crust with a lightly beaten egg yolk. This will give the crust a nice brown toasty color once baked. Bake in a hot oven (450 F) for 10 minutes; reduce heat to moderate (350F) continue baking for 35 to 40 minutes until apples are just tender. Carefully remove from the oven and cool before serving.
Note:
a) to keep bottom crust from soaking the juices, sprinkle some of the sugar mixture over the bottom crust before filling the pie.
b) To prevent juices from boiling over and onto your oven, place your pie pan on top of a larger pan. Hopefully, the pan will catch all the drippings.
c) You may top slices of your pie with vanilla ice cream. (pie ala mode)
Practice makes for the picture perfect pie.
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