Sweater Weather

Ah, fall. The air grows chilly, the wind is brisker, the leaves change colors, rainstorms abound.

Almost...none of this has happened. We had rain yesterday, but it felt more like a quick summery shower with some thunder and lightening thrown in. In my desire to hasten autumn along, I made this apple cake, which is less like a cake and more like an explosion of apples barely held together by a custard-like cake binder. The recipe is from the New York Times, and for some reason, I have a paper copy of it. Thanks to the good people at the Times, who have recently seen fit to open their archives to all, we see that it was published September 22, 2004. This all leads me to believe I probably bought the paper in the airport on the way back to the start of my third year of college. Which why would we be talking about now, since I made the cake a few days ago? Right. Here are all the apple slices in a bowl. This was sort of a pain. Here are...all the slices in a pan! (Not to be confused with previous photo.) But really, this is much more apple than cake. It is also...slightly too full, as I discovered when I was settling down to read my chemistry textbook while it was baking, only to be interrupted by the smoke alarm going off. Repeatedly. The very high ceilings of the apartment mean that this involves me jumping up and down a lot trying to wave the smoke away. Thankfully, roommates were not home. Although the smoke alarm did go off the next two times the oven was used, when they were here. On to other things that probably appall my roommates, this is the carnage leftover from peeling, coring, and slicing five apples. Which I cleaned up promptly, of course. And, the finished cake. The issue with the smoke alarm meant I took it out of the oven about 10 minutes before I would have normally, but the apples are nicely caramelized, and the cake was halfway between cake and custard. All persons partaking of it approved.

So, I'm not too busy to bake, but I am too busy to write about it.
Continuing the freezer purge, there were two pie crusts left, and my roommate requested I make apple pie from them. I can never remember what recipe I used the last time I made apple pie, and I knew I needed to make a smaller recipe than 6 cups of apple, so I looked at Baker's Illustrated, as usual, and a recipe from Baking Bites. I actually wrote the recipe down as I was making it, just in case it turned out to be the best apple pie ever. It wasn't, but it wasn't bad. The apples cooked down a lot, and also sort of lumpy, so I think I could have arranged them more compactly in the pie and fit more in, but my roommate had no complaints.
Apple pie is so much easier when you don't have to make the crust pie


Thaw frozen crusts for about 15 minutes. While thawing, slice 1 granny smith apple and 1 and a half golden deliciouses. Mix with 1/4 cup white sugar, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, a scant tablespoon flour, 2 dashes of salt, 2 dashes of nutmeg and a 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. Let sit for 15 minutes or so. Place in pie crust and dot with a tablesppon of butter. Press down the other pie crust gently and place on top, using fork tines to seal the edges. Cut slits in a super cute and decorative way, and place in 425 degree oven for about 15 minutes, then 45 minutes to an hour at 375 degrees, until filling is bubbling. My crust got pretty brown quickly and had to be covered with foil, so watch it.

Then, realize you actually have an extra apple, some strawberries, and leftover crisp topping from a previous berry pie. Throw them together in a pie tin and also bake for about 45 minutes in a 375 degree oven.
Decide there wasn't enough butter or juice so it's not very browned or all that good. Offer to roommates anyway, and realize that three pies divides up into three people very easily. Really, I had one small slice each of apple pie and the apple-strawberry thing, and almost all of the berry pie, and each of my roommates staked out their own pies.