Rustic Cognac-Apple Pie

This is a rendition of Rustic Armagnac-Apple Pie from Vegetarian Times (VT). I've never heard of Armagnac before. According to wiki, Armagnac is an aged brandy from the Armagnac region in Gascony, southwest France. I did not see Armagnac in the liquor store so I bought brandy instead. Brandy is already expensive as it is - $9 for a 100ml bottle. I don't really want to know how much an aged brandy cost :).

It is a tasty pie and I like that it's easy to put together.  When I was putting this together, I felt the amount of dried fruits used is a bit overwhelming. I only make 1/2 the recipe and the dried fruits filled over half a 2-cup pyrex container. Dried fruits has quite a bit of sugar in it so I thought it would be overly sweet. But it turned out not too sweet at all and I did not notice all the dried fruits while eating it.

One note on the crust though. While it is good, it does not even hold a candle to my favorite cream cheese pie crust from Rose Levy Beranbaum. Next time I made this pie I will use this pie crust.

Open-Faced Designer Apple Pie

Man, I have been slacking lately! Has it really been over a month since my latest post?

I am having a writer's block. I have several draft posts pending. They are populated with the photos. All I need is the words. But that's the problem. The words. I don't know what to write and don't feel like writing. Today I saw a post on The Kitchn on a new cookbook, Plum. The few pictures there look so yummy and makes me want to eat and take pictures and heck, I remember I haven't blogged for a while (do you follow the train of thought there? :)). So here is a new post - sort of.

I made this yummy pie back in February (!) for a potluck at a friend's house. The recipe is from The Pie & Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. I bake a lot from Rose's recipes. Her books are my go-to recipe. Not because they are easy. In fact, Rose's recipes usually requires extra step, more time, and more dishes - sometime of them produce a lot of dishes. I go to Rose because her recipes are stellar in taste and very detailed in instruction.

PPB: Apple Puff Pastry

These pastries are simply so good!

I had made a batch of puff pastry back in March. For no reason other than I want to make it. When I got the Pie & Pastry Bible a couple of years ago I made puff pastry, roll it out and bake it, in the hopes of making napoleon. I didn't weigh down the pastry correctly so they all bake up and puff up all over the place. My napoleon turned out great in the taste department, but it's very rustic in the looks. Kinda like how a street looks after harsh winter, with pot holes and bumps all over the place.

HCB Free Choice: Apple Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake and Chocolate Apricot Roll with Lacquer Glaze

There are a couple of cakes from the book that I made last year but never blogged about. I was going to at some point but things other cakes got in the way.

This weekend I told myself that I should blog about them. No excuses! Even if the photos makes me cringe, especially the Apricot Roll one, where the sliced photo is all blurry. I took 8 photos of them and none were in focus. *@)*&)*%#_*#)!

There's not much to say about the Apple Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake as I don't remember much. Which to me means two things: the cake was easy and the taste was not bad but not super good either.

I do remember that we love the crunch of the topping on top and the slight crunch of the apple in the middle.

FFWD: Marie-Helene's Apple Cake

This is Marie Helene's Apple Cake from Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table.

I made 1/2 a recipe and baked in a 7 inch pan with removable bottom. I used 3 different kinds of apples (Jonagold , Honeycrisp, and Golden Delicious). I know for 1/2 a recipe I should have used only 2 of them but I want to get a lot of variety in the mix.

This cake is super easy to make, probably one of the easiest cakes I've made. I don't even have to crank on the KA mixer and that's saying a lot.


Tasting impressions:
Hubby gave it a thumbs up and said it's really good. As for me, on the day of baking, I thought the cake was good but not special. The next day, the taste improves and I am changing my verdict. It is really good. I love that there are more apples than dough in there. The dark rum definitely adds a dimension to the taste. This one will be repeated for sure.

HCB: Apple Caramel Charlotte

I was not looking forward to this cake. For one thing, it is seven pages long. I had once thought to suggest Marie to schedule this on a holiday weekend. Before I had chance to make my suggestion, Marie posted this on the schedule for this week. It crossed my mind to skip this cake, but I knew that I would never make if had it not been for HCB, "no turning back" I thought.

Another reason why I hesitated with this cake is that this requires baking the sponge cake evenly, something that never happened to me. I thought that my "charlotte" would definitely be uneven, unlike the nice picture in the book. And then I would be sooo disappointed, having spent all the hours making the cake.

Well, on Friday, after searching a couple of liquor stores for Calvados and gotten the "Cal, what?" and "what kind of liquor is it?" I got to one that carries it. At the price tag of $45 for a 750 ml bottle, I decided against buying it. In absence of Calvados, I decided I had 2 options: 1) use regular brandy and add more apples to the poaching liquid. 2). use peach brandy and hope it works.

In the end, I used the peach brandy and added more apples to the poaching liquid.

On Saturday, while doing my mise-en-place for the sponge cake, something amazing happen. You know when you do the same thing several times, over and over, and it's always the same way, and then one day, you have those "light bulb on" in your head, like you see in cartoons. Well, I thought aha, even though I'm making 1/2 recipes, I should make the full recipe of the sponge cake, so I would have a lot of cake to play with, since they will be uneven.

So I did, made the full recipe of the sponge cake. I haven't made full recipe of sponge cake for so long that I just realized it is easier to fold the sponge cake when it's the full amount. It doesn't deflate as much as if it's 1/2 recipe. And for once, for once, the sponge cake was even. The whole sheet was an even depth. I was so happy I was jumping up and down in the kitchen.

While the cake was cooling, I poached the apples. Nothing to report on this step, it was pretty easy.

The cake cooled, and I measured twice to cut the cake per instruction. Since this is 1/2 recipe, using 7 inch pan, I had to made a 6 1/2 inch circle. That leaves me plenty of cake "strips" for the charlotte. They are brushed with the apricot preserve and into the freezer they went.

On Sunday, I finished the rest of the cake. First was lining the pan with the sliced cake. I didn't really measure as I don't know exactly what 3/8 of an inch is LOL. So I just look at the picture in the book, look at my cake slices and cut. I must say that I enjoy this process the most.

Next was the Apple Caramel Custard. Made the caramel and poured the hot poaching liquid over it. Didn't get burn this time, :) phew! Heat up and stir until all the caramel dissolved and then stir into the egg yolks, then add in the gelatin and heat the whole thing up until it's thick like lemon curd.

Next was the tricky part, and the part that I totally missed when I read the recipe. Apparently I had to time the cooling of the custard until it's a certain consistency before making the Italian meringue and whipped cream. moving on to the next step. The good thing is that the cream is not quite as fragile as the Italian meringue, so I proceeded to whip the cream, and then store it in the fridge while I want.

I gotta tell you that I must have hovered over the custard like a mama bird guarding its nest. I thought of sitting on the couch and read my book, but I knew that I would get sidetrack and then forgot about checking the custard. Plus the instruction said to stir the custard often, so I hovered and did so! After I don't know how long, the custard is almost thick enough and I made the meringue.

Then all 3 components are folded together and poured onto the charlotte mold. Into the fridge it went, for about half an hour. Now is the step that's the trickiest, making the Apple into rose design. I tried to slice the apples somewhat thin and separate the big pieces from the small pieces. With the book next to it to guide, voila, here's the Apple Rose.

Tasting impressions:

This cake is DIVINE! The apple caramel custard is a knock-your-socks-off kinda of a dessert. It is so fragrant, I can smell the caramel and the apples in it, even though it's been refrigerated. I love sponge cakes and this one is no exception a winner. As hubby puts it, "when there's a fruit in the cake, it is usually good." This one gets "at least an 8" - which is the highest score any cake every get. As Rose's cake usually gets better the next day, I am so looking forward to having my slice today :).

PP&B: Apple Pie

This is Open-Faced Designer Apple Pie from page 84 of the Pie & Pastry Bible. My first attempt of making this pie last month were not this good: the bottom crust was a bit under baked and the leaves around the crust looked like it was hit by a hurricane. I was so happy that this second attempt was more successful. One tip I have for anyone who is going to attempt this is to try to split the task into 2 days: make the crust and shape the leaves on day 1, then finish the pie on day 2. If you can't do this in one day, start as early in the day as possible. Also, be patient. The leaves take time to make. You have to roll out the dough then cut it with a paring knife. By then the dough is too soft so have to chill it before prying the leaves out. Then have to chill the scraps again before rolling it out and cutting it. Anyone who's ever made sugar cookies in different shapes would know what it takes. Next time I should try putting the chilled marble pastry board beneath it so it doesn't get soft too fast.

Regardless of the time it takes, I was glad I did it. I don’t think this is something I will do often, but it’s nice to do it at least once to have the experience, and of course, apture the moment in eternity in a nice picture, :).

HCB: Apple Upside-Down Cake

At first, I was going to use peaches for this recipe. But it's apple season now, so I decided to use apples. This recipe is easy to make. I used Honey Crisp apples, core it with a melon baller and cut it thin. It is so fun to arrange the apples - I had the book next to it so I could try to mimic the design. I am short by 10 grams for the egg yolks, but I'm out of eggs, so I went ahead with the recipe anyway. This cake is baked in a 9x2 inches pan - encircled with Rose's cake strips - set on a baking stone. The stone was preheated for an hour. The stone really helps with the temperature of the oven because usually I have to add 10 minutes or so to the baking time because the middle part is not set yet. This time, however, baking time is exactly as prescribed by Rose. The result is this beautiful Apple Upside-Down Cake.


Now don't think that everything is going super well in my kitchen. It turns out that I did not have a plate large enough to hold this cake. I tried one of the biggest plate that I have and since the sides of the plate was slightly slanted, the cake was a bit damaged on one side. Anyway, ended up using a sheet pan as the place holder of this cake. Voila - disaster averted. Note to self: please go find a cake stand or a large plate!


Now onto the tasting impressions. I like making apple pies/tarts, I have tried several recipes of pies and tarts (including Rose's Open Face Designer Apple Pie). However, I am not a big fan of the taste of apple dessert. I know, I know, how can I not like apple dessert, right? Well, that's how it is. Given the choice between Apple Pie or any other cake I would usually pick the cake. Anyway, just when I thought that all is lost in the apple dessert land - that I wound never find a kind that I like - comes Apple Upside-Down Cake. This cake is soooo good. It's tender and moist and taste awesome! In retrospect, maybe what I don't like is pie crust then? :) Anyway, I love making (and eating) this cake. I will definitely make it again - and maybe try the peach version.