I don't make pies often, especially not fruit pies. I'm always afraid of ending up an undercooked crust, and the thing about a fruit pie is that it's hard to share unless you're serving it to a bunch of people all in one place. I give away almost everything that I bake, but it's logistically challenging to give away pie. If you give someone the entire pie you not only don't get to cut it open to see how it turned out, but you also have to deal with reclaiming the pie plate later. If you try to give away individual slices, the fruit filling often falls out and creates a mess.
But when I saw Dorie Greenspan's recipe for "Apple Pie, Circus-Style" (inspired by the pie at Circus bakery in Paris), it seemed like the perfect pie for sharing. The recipe yields three pentagonal mini pies, each meant to serve two people. The pies are filled with lightly sweetened apples, without any spices added.
You make the dough in the food processor by blending bread flour, whole-wheat flour, sugar, salt, cold cubed butter, ice water, and apple cider vinegar. I divided the dough into three equal parts, formed each piece into a disc, wrapped it in plastic, and chilled it overnight. I wanted to double the recipe, so I made a second batch of dough and ended up with six total portions of dough.
The next day, I rolled out each piece of dough to a thickness of a quarter inch. I cut each piece into a 7-inch circle by placing a 7-inch cake pan on top and cutting around it with a sharp a paring knife. I re-rolled the scraps to create a seventh 7-inch circle of crust, and an eighth piece that was about five inches across. I stacked the circles of dough (each one was on a separate piece of parchment paper) and put them back in the fridge.
For the filling, I sliced Fuji apples thinly on a mandoline and tossed them with sugar, flour, lemon zest, melted butter, and lemon juice (I also threw in a pinch of salt). To assemble the pies, I scored a 4-inch circle in the center of each circle of dough (tracing the outside of a 4-inch cake pan) and arranged a pile of apples within the circle. I had a lot of apples left over but in retrospect, I could have fit more more into the pies. I folded up the sides of the dough over the apples to form five-sided pies, brushes the sides with thinned egg, sprinkled on coarse sugar, and baked the pies until golden. I only baked four pies to a sheet (since I had seven full-sized pies and one smaller pie), so when I baked them they were not as crowded as they are in the photo below.
I was happy that the pies kept their shape relatively well; several people who left comments on the recipe complained that the sides of their pies unfolded and collapsed during baking. When I took the pies out of the oven I was a little concerned that I saw liquid at the bottom of each pie, but after the pies sat for a bit, that liquid got reabsorbed. The edges of some of the apples got singed, and there was no hint of the pink color of the apple peels; the reason that I used Fuji apples (instead of Golden Delicious or Gala, as all three are listed as options by Dorie), was that I was hoping to see hints of pink in the finished product.
The crusts were quite thick and I worried that the crust would be soggy (especially because I didn't know where all that liquid went), but I was delighted that the bottoms of the crusts were golden brown, caramelized, and completely cooked through. The top surface of the crust had absorbed liquid from the apples and if was soft (and delicious!), but the crust overall was not soggy. Still, I think these pies would have been better with a thinner crust. But overall, these pies were quite tasty. There was a certain brightness to the apple filling form the lemon zest and juice, but the apples were tender and sweet, and the pastry was golden and firm -- although not flaky.
These pies are perfect for sharing; it was easy to pack them up and drop them off at a friend's house. I kept one pie for us, and the crust was so thick that it was easiest to eat the pie as a hand food instead of trying to cut through the crust with a fork. Without any cinnamon, the flavor of the pie was different from a traditional apple pie, but I enjoyed it immensely all the same.
Recipe: "Apple Pie, Circus-Style," by Dorie Greenspan, from The New York Times.
But when I saw Dorie Greenspan's recipe for "Apple Pie, Circus-Style" (inspired by the pie at Circus bakery in Paris), it seemed like the perfect pie for sharing. The recipe yields three pentagonal mini pies, each meant to serve two people. The pies are filled with lightly sweetened apples, without any spices added.
You make the dough in the food processor by blending bread flour, whole-wheat flour, sugar, salt, cold cubed butter, ice water, and apple cider vinegar. I divided the dough into three equal parts, formed each piece into a disc, wrapped it in plastic, and chilled it overnight. I wanted to double the recipe, so I made a second batch of dough and ended up with six total portions of dough.
The next day, I rolled out each piece of dough to a thickness of a quarter inch. I cut each piece into a 7-inch circle by placing a 7-inch cake pan on top and cutting around it with a sharp a paring knife. I re-rolled the scraps to create a seventh 7-inch circle of crust, and an eighth piece that was about five inches across. I stacked the circles of dough (each one was on a separate piece of parchment paper) and put them back in the fridge.
For the filling, I sliced Fuji apples thinly on a mandoline and tossed them with sugar, flour, lemon zest, melted butter, and lemon juice (I also threw in a pinch of salt). To assemble the pies, I scored a 4-inch circle in the center of each circle of dough (tracing the outside of a 4-inch cake pan) and arranged a pile of apples within the circle. I had a lot of apples left over but in retrospect, I could have fit more more into the pies. I folded up the sides of the dough over the apples to form five-sided pies, brushes the sides with thinned egg, sprinkled on coarse sugar, and baked the pies until golden. I only baked four pies to a sheet (since I had seven full-sized pies and one smaller pie), so when I baked them they were not as crowded as they are in the photo below.
The crusts were quite thick and I worried that the crust would be soggy (especially because I didn't know where all that liquid went), but I was delighted that the bottoms of the crusts were golden brown, caramelized, and completely cooked through. The top surface of the crust had absorbed liquid from the apples and if was soft (and delicious!), but the crust overall was not soggy. Still, I think these pies would have been better with a thinner crust. But overall, these pies were quite tasty. There was a certain brightness to the apple filling form the lemon zest and juice, but the apples were tender and sweet, and the pastry was golden and firm -- although not flaky.
These pies are perfect for sharing; it was easy to pack them up and drop them off at a friend's house. I kept one pie for us, and the crust was so thick that it was easiest to eat the pie as a hand food instead of trying to cut through the crust with a fork. Without any cinnamon, the flavor of the pie was different from a traditional apple pie, but I enjoyed it immensely all the same.
Recipe: "Apple Pie, Circus-Style," by Dorie Greenspan, from The New York Times.
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