Sunday, March 21, 2010

SMS: Double-Crusted Caramel Apple Pie


Around here it’s a good week if I have made my Sweet Melissa recipe by Friday, but I actually made this week’s selection, Double-Crusted Caramel Apple Pie, last month. Between Tuesdays With Dorie and Sweet Melissa Sundays, there were a lot of dessert-desserts (you know: pies, cakes, tarts) chosen for the month of March, so back when the Sweet Melissa group made lemonade in February and I had a little free baking time, I gave Josh a choice of recipes and he, not surprisingly, chose apple pie. This worked out perfectly since his annual Boyz Trip was this weekend, and Eloise and I went to visit my family. (I’m sure my family wouldn’t have minded me bringing an apple pie with me. Instead they got an upcoming cake that I knew Josh wouldn’t be interested in).



I don’t fear caramel nearly as much as I used to, but have had enough mishaps to make me slightly apprehensive when a caramel recipe comes up. I used a 10-inch shallow skillet to make the caramel and I’m happy to say that this one came together in exactly the amount of time the recipe specified – awesome! For the crust, I tried Melissa’s all-butter pie dough for the first time. I made the dough by hand with my pastry blender and thought it was having a little trouble coming together, so I added the maximum amount of water the recipe suggested, which made it a little sticky to roll out. The crust baked up fine and tasted excellent, though. However, I have no idea how this happened:



Okay, maybe some idea: I probably could have been more careful trimming the sides. On a semi-related note, the recipe said to bake the pie for an hour and forty-five minutes, but I checked it around an hour and it was done just a few minutes later. Josh enjoyed this pie quite a bit and it took him back to his single days: now he has a constant influx of homemade baked goods of different varieties, but before I came along, store-bought apple pie and ice cream was his favorite post-run indulgence when he was marathon training. This recipe rated an 8 for Deliciousness and a 4.5 for Effort, giving it an EDR of 1.77. Many thanks to Susan of Baking With Susan for selecting this yummy pie. I bake along with Susan in both baking groups and always enjoy visiting her blog. You can find the recipe here and visit the SMS blogroll to see what the rest of the group thought of this pie.



Look who ghosted over when I was trying to photograph the pie.

10 comments:

Nina said...

Yum it looks good. How cute, annual boyz trip. I wish I had an annual trip to look forward to.

and yes. ice cream and pie are a WONDERFUL combination!

Cristine said...

Your pie looks so yummy!

Andrea at Nummy Kitchen said...

Your pie looks absolutely delicious! I wish I would have used the butter pie crust recipe, I decided the give the flaky version a try and we didn't care for it.

Mimi said...

Apple and caramel is such a classic combination. Your crust looks perfectly delicious.
Mimi

Leslie said...

Yours looks so much like, yes, a pie! Mine looked like a deflated football. I'm sticking with my go-to all butter pie crust but success that some had with this one has me wondering if I should give it another try.

Hanaâ said...

The pie looks delicious, so does the crust. You can tell it's flaky!! In the end, I'm glad it tasted good as well. Did you or Josh miss not having cinnamon in the filling?

Unknown said...

I hear you on baking last minute for SMS. It's a rare week that I'm not baking mine on Saturday. Your pie looks great though! The crust was a hit here too, but the caramel gave me issues so I'm jealous yours worked so well! Hope Josh enjoyed his trip :)

margot said...

@Hanaa, I thought the cinnamon might be out of place, but if I made this pie again, I would definitely add it.

spike. said...

You're a month ahead and I'm days late! oh well. looks great!

Anonymous said...

It looks great. Cute picture of Eloise and the pie!