First annual Spike memorial apple pie war

[bob perry]

I have my first pie in the oven today. I forgot to add the grated ginger as Spike instructs but it still smells pretty damn good. I added raisins. Jill sugested some butter.
So I am in full pie war training mode.
Next comes the pastry dough. I know I can do this.

We need two things to make the war work:
We need a judge and I nominate Lin/Booms. We can't have a woman entering the contest that would be unfair. That would be like having a man enter the women's shot put event. So let's have Lin, if she agrees, to do the judging.

We need a prize. I have a T shirt. It belonged to Spike. It is not new. It is a Perry Rendezvous T shirt with one of my cartoons on it. If you won this shirt and you actually put it on you would be the first person since Spike to wear the shirt.
It's a pretty personal item for me. But I think this whole pie war is a very personal thing for me. My first pie is salted with some tears. But damn it smells good now. I'm feeling pretty good abouit this whole apple pie thing right now.

Prepare to pie.
Pie ho!
Pieing!

Life can be fun.

[bob perry]

My first pie is out of the oven. I'll take a photo. It's not very impressive looking but it is impressive smelling.
Is there a smelling ap? Can I link to a smell?

I'm going to make so many apple pies in the next month that I will throw up at the suggestion of an apple pie. I did that with cheesecakes. I made two and sat down and ate both of them. They were good. Couldn't look at a cheesecake for over 5 years. I did that with martinis too.

[bob perry]

My very first pie.

Ok,,,,it's not a thing of beauty but I'm working on the aesthetics.
It smells really good.

I can't imagine it will not taste great given the ingrediants. But apple pie is about the consistancy, the body. I do';t want apple soup.
I'll report back later after I feed it to tonight's dinner guests.

[kimbottles]

So are we being judged on Looks? Taste? Color? Texture? Caloric measure? Weight? Smell? What???

Or is it completely up to a whim of Lin??

[bob perry]

Kim:
I don't think we can mail our pies to Lin. It would cause an international incident at the border.

I think we write disertation on our pies and let Lin go from that with a photo that shows the actual pie. The disertation will be like golf. You can lie about your pie but you will feel bad inside.

I just tasted my pie. It was dissapointing. I give it a 6.00. The taste was fine. It needed more cinnamon. I forgot to add the grated ginger. It might need more flour to make it set up better. It was a bit sloppy. I'd like to cut a nice geometric slice. I used organic Granny Smith apples and they turned out kind of tasteless. No apple taste. I've got some work to do if I am going to impress myself with a pie. Still, it's a pie and I ate two pieces. Not bad for a start.

[kimbottles]

We could always lure Lin across the border to have her judge in person. She would get unlimited apple pie, what could be better than that??

[bob perry]

Yeah but what about the guys down under? What about Jamie in Taiwan? What about the east coast guys?

[Anomaly]

Yeah but what about the guys down under? What about Jamie in Taiwan? What about the east coast guys?

I plan to just mail you (Bob) my entry. Then its your problem.... I'll be in Anchorage on the 2nd so will post it before leaving. Hah!

[bob perry]

Seth:
Why don't you stop here and make a pie in my kitchen?

[Anomaly]

Seth:
Why don't you stop here and make a pie in my kitchen?

Why thank you Bob. Maybe.... My first thought was that I want to bake this pie in my Dickinson-- my secret weapon. EVERYthing tastes better coming from the Dickinson. At least that's my story. But let me see if I can make the travel work. It may have to be a quick trip up and back.

[Lin]

Cool idea and a fun thread.
That pie looks not bad for a first attempt Bob. Did you really make your own pastry?

Not sure if I would be a great judge as I am not big on the pastry part, but I love the filling. Lots of warm flavors (cinnamon, allspice, a wee bit of cloves and a secret ingredient ... ) would go towards winning me over. I'm a texture-appreciative person (I should coin that), so no runny fillings or mushy, bland apples. Blackberries and apples are a yummy combo, too. I know how I like the top crust finished aesthetically, but that will be my secret to see if anyone comes up with it.

Contestants could save one piece of each attempt and freeze it until June. I could do a blind taste testing at the Spike sail by!

Overseas contestants can forward their best recipes for a non-biaed person to replicate their recipe. Or they can watch in envy as the locals get the pickle dish for best pie.

[Ish]

I don't need any pickle dishes. I don't like pickles much.
However, here's a cartoon for Bob's wife. That was pretty much an impossible segue, so I didn't bother.

[Ish]

And here's one for Bob. Apologies to the multitude of females on this board.

[kdh]

I'm in.

So putting shots to men is baking apple pies to women? I think the women should be allowed to bake.

[BeauV]

I just realized that Gravenstein aren't going to be available until Fall! I can't make an Apple Pie without Gravenstein apples!! Can I turn in my pie late???

I haven't even started to think about improving my pastry.... I'm a "filling kind of guy".... pastry.... hmm......

[bob perry]

Lin:
I had no recipe.
I had a precious video of Spike demonstrating how to make an appl pie.
I'll find a way to share it soon.

My pie was Ok. My friends liked it and ate it. I ate it for breakfast.

Others:
My wife takes her bee keeping thing very seriously. Bee's are complicated little buggers.

[Ish]

Lin:
I had no recipe.
I had a precious video of Spike demonstrating how to make an appl pie.
I'll find a way to share it soon.

My pie was Ok. My friends liked it and ate it. I ate it for breakfast.

Others:
My wife takes her bee keeping thing very seriously. Bee's are complicated little buggers.

Others? I used to have a name.

[Anomaly]

[quote="Ish"]
Others? I used to have a name. [Quote]

Oh, oh. Bob, you've hurt Ish's feelings. Maybe you should send him a pie.

Your sensitivity coach,

[B.J. Porter]

Apple options here are pretty crappy; you want bland applesauce-in-a-crust try Red Delicious apples. And I'm pretty sure I can't put a proper apple pie in our tiny oven, so I will only be with you in sprite.

My mother's side comes from a family of German bakers; my great-grandfather made killer pies and passed that on to my mother. Allegedly my grandmother used to be a wonderful baker back when she was first married, but I think my grandfather must have said something dumb at some point and pissed her off, because I never saw her bake a thing, ever - I was shocked when my grandfather started talking about her wonderful baking one day. But my mother learned it. I've done more than a few myself though I've not always had the patience to cut the fat into the flour until it was tiny velvety balls, mix in tghe three tablespoons of ice water, yada yada yada.

The hand made crust is a big part of it, apple choices the other large part. Fall option options in New England gave some good ones, I imagine you PNW guys do OK too.

Have fun with it.

[BeauV]

I've got 8 apples, stacked up waiting for me to peal cut etc.... but.... that crust stuff.... Stacey is gone today so I'm without my consultant! Darn. Oh well, that's what this interweb thing is for

PIE HO!!!!

[bob perry]

Beau:
So you are going to make crust from scratch off the internet. Crust ala Gore? Boy, you have some balls.

[Courtney]

My parents have apple tries on their property. Naturally every fall my mom makes apple pies, lots of them. They're heaven. She uses Martha Stewart's crust http://www.food.com/recipe/martha-stewarts-foolproof-pie-crust-59026 recipe for all of her pies (apple and pumpkin) and swears by it. The recipe calls for unsalted butter, but who the heck has that? She uses salted. Yum.

[kimbottles]

. The recipe calls for unsalted butter, but who the heck has that? She uses salted. Yum.

SWMBO has and uses unsalted butter............apparently it is a cook sort of thing..............

[Ish]

We have and use both salted and unsalted. I thought everyone did...

[BeauV]

Bob,

My first pie was a DISASTER of the first order. So, I tossed the crust and ate the filling while watching TV. Oh well.


Courtney,

Thanks for the Martha Stewart link - I'll try that next time. Geeesh, who'dathunk this was so hard!?!

BV

[kdh]

Beau, the trick is to work the crust as little as possible. As for shortening, lard is best.

[Courtney]

SWMBO has and uses unsalted butter............apparently it is a cook sort of thing..............

Ah, she's the real deal, then. My mom has a bad habit of winging it and not always following directions. Sometimes it works great, sometimes....

[bob perry]

Keith:
Can you buy lard at the supermarket. I can't recall a "lard" section at my store. I suspect that if they have it it would have to be refrigerated. Right?

I watched one of those 'How they make things" shpows on tv some time ago. It was about one of the biggest potato chip makers on the East Coast.
They made a variety of chips but their consitant biggest seller was the chips cooked in lard.

I lie the idea of using lard. "Lard" it sonds like it should be illegal.

" Hey man, you carrying any lard?"

[Ish]

Look in the butcher section.

And make sure you get lard and not larb. There is a substantial difference.

[bob perry]

"Larb"?
Ish, you are shitting me, right?

I know my butcher, Merle, well. I'll ask him for help.
Given where I live the people who work at the supermarket are my social circle. They treat me right.
Merle's working on getting me some veal kidneys.
I'll learn to do a crust and I'll do a steak and kidney pie.