Baking Arts - Week 2: Apple Pie

So of course the very first thing we made was an apple pie. That quintessential dessert that is forever associated with American culture. Wait, hang on a second, we're in Canada here! What gives?

In the absence of satisfactory answers, I will attribute this selection to a few factors:
1) It's fall, so this is the perfect seasonal dessert
2) It's fairly easy to make, and teaches the basics of dough creation
There, problem solved. There will be no assimilation in my cooking.

The dough for this pie was prepared in week 1, and frozen in preparation for this class. The dough was thankfully made with vegetable shortening. Oh, the terrbile heart pangs I had, imagining platefuls of lard that I'd be forced to use in my dough. Lucky for me, the lard is too expensive for the school to provide (read: we're a bit on the cheap side), so vegetable shortening it was. Also a convenient way to address any religious or moral concerns.


When preparing the dough, we first worked the shortening and flour by hand, creating walnut-sized pieces, and then finished mixing it in a gorgeous, giant, industrial mixer. My lovely Kitchenaid would merely cower in its shadow. Expensive sports cars? They've got nothing on this mixer.

The last part of preparation was kneading the dough by hand, which was fantastically relaxing. I can completely see why Anna Olson gave up her banking day job for baking. Kneading dough really is a lovely, soothing experience, just as advertised by our cooking instructor. I've made dough before, but never quite got to knead it in the proper way, so this was enlightening.

So back to this week - making the actual pie. We used Spy apples, which stand up well to baking and don't turn to mush. They also have a robust, not-too-sweet falvour. I've picked Apy apples for baking before, and was glad we got to work with them.

After peeling and chopping the apples, we mixed them with some lemon zest & juice, sugar, cinnamon, melted butter and cornstarch. The cornstarch was added to bond the gooey goodness together, so the apple pie wouldn't come out of the oven sloshing around like tourists in a resort pool. I've used the trick before, and it works well, without detracting from the flavour. We also let the apple mixture stand for nearly half an hour to allow the juices to drain from the apples - that's the stuff that you later leave in the bowl to prevent soggy pies. Also has good potential for apple sauce...

Finally, we rolled out our defrosted pie dough, one piece for the bottom crust and one piece for the top crust. The dough was very smooth and easy to work with, and didn't suffer at all from the freezing/thawing cycle.

The pie was first filled to the brim:

And then covered, with decorative elements included:

All the students' pies went into an enormous industrial over, somewhat reminiscent of a pizza oven. They then baked for an hour, while we got to clean up and socialize.

Finally, the piping-hot, delcious smelling pies were ready. The entire baking lab smelled like a beautiful fall afternoon. The crust came out flaky and delicious, while the filling was sweet and gooey, but not soggy. Yes, of course I had a slice as soon as I got home! Although the rest of it will be shared with family.

Amuse bouche

This will be my best effort to document my expeditions into the awesome world of food. I plan to mostly address my cooking experiences, but may also venture into discussions on eating out (alas, my poor figure).

First, some background.
I've been cooking for quite a while, and have been serious about the matter for about 3 years. Now, we're not talking 'executive chef at the Four Seasons' kind of serious. Just serious on a personal level - creating dishes previously only oohed and aahed over, throwing dinner parties for friends and family, and just experimenting with cool recipes on a day-to-day basis. Cooking and baking are my two loves, that give me a welcome reprieve from my days in front of the computer. My weary eyes also thank me (except, of course, for the onion chopping episodes).

I have also, to date, taken two courses at the George Brown Chef School, under their continuing education program. The first was a 'Culinary Arts I' course, which is an introductory cooking class. My partner for the class is now enrolled in the full-time program, and might open her own place in a few years (*fingers crossed*).

The other course was a 2 month course on tea. Yes, tea, my small obsession. Boxes and boxes of it filling my pantry shelves - black, white, green, herbal, oolong... But this is a discussion for another time. George Brown college now offers a unique tea sommelier certificate program, approved by the Tea Association of Canada. You'll have to excuse this, I tend to get side-tracekd so easily when it comes to tea =)

So I'm currently enrolled in the 'Baking Arts I' class, which provides intro level instruction for all manners of baking and cake decorating. Not to worry, I have a plan to preserve my "dainty" figure - I will feed my creations to others! Perhaps the hubby, perhaps the coworkers.

I'm hoping to be able to post my opinions on the course and on what I learn, as well as some pictures of what I make. I'm also hoping to have my partner for the course provide a few of her own blog posts on the matter. If she consents (no arm twisting here, I promise), she can introduce herself at her own leisure.

I have been enamoured with baking since about the age of 10, and have been known to make some cakes that resulted in my mom's lifted eyebrows (in a good way, shame on you for thinking otherwise). I think I've inherited this from my grandmothers, who are both amazing and accomplished bakers. So this course is not really a beginner course for me, but a way to learn some new techniques, and to glimpse the difference in commercial vs. home baking. It's also a prerequisite for the other fun courses I want to take.

Classes are Wednesday nights, so keep your eyes open for updates!

P.S. - If you didn't yet grasp the title of this post, learn about the amuse bouche