Apple Pie

Made this for children’s day celebration on 14^th Nov. This Wednesday was a regular working day for us, being the day after Diwali, many ppl were on leave and it was a pretty laid back day in office. Learnt towards afternoon that it’s children’s day. I have been thinking of trying to make an apple pie since many days.. I didn't have pie baking dish so was waiting till I buy one. Anyways on Wednesday, I decided to finally make one for Shaurya. Downloaded a couple of recipes from internet. All the ingredients are generally easily available at home. Instead of pie dish, I baked it in the cake baking tin that I have. It turned out good.. was very tasty and got over in a huff!! My cake tin has a 7 inch diameter so I used the quantity as mentioned below. I had a little dough left at the end. You will have to improvise based on the quantity that you need.

You will need:

For the Pie crust

Maida (all-purpose flour) – 250gm

Butter – 60-70 gm (the more the merrier.. J - recipe said unsalted but I used the regular amul salted butter)

Powdered sugar – 1 tsp

Cold water – to knead the dough

For the apple filling

Apple – 2 (peeled and cut into small pieces)

Water – 1 cup

Powdered sugar – 2-3 tsp (depends on the size & quantity of apples)

Lemon juice - ½ lemon

Cinnamon powder – 2 tsp ( I had cinnamon sticks with me.. grounded them to make a course powder)

Milk & butter – 1 tsp each to brush the top of the pie

Preparation:

Pie Crust:

1.       Cut the butter into small cubes and mix it in maida & sugar powder. Don’t melt the butter, use refrigerated ones only.. just use your fingers and rub it with maida till it gets thoroughly mixed. You will get a bread crumbs kind of texture.

2.       Now add cold water little by little.. 1 tbsp at a time and knead it into a dough. Don’t make it too soft or knead a lot. It should just bind enough so that u can roll it into a circular shape for the pie crust.

3.       Wrap it in plastic wrap and keep it in fridge for at least an hour.

Apple filing:

1.       Take water in a pan and bring it to boil.

2.       Add the apples and cook till all the water is absorbed and apples become a little tender.

3.       Now add powdered sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon powder.

Assembling & Baking the Pie:

1.       Preheat an oven at 200 degree C for 10 min.

2.       Take out the crust dough from the fridge and divide it into 2 portions.

3.       Using a rolling pin, make a circle of uniform thickness with each. The diameter of the circle would depend on the baking dish that u r using.. mine was a cake tin so I made it big enough to cover the tin base and the sides. Use the same logic based on the size of the dish that u have.

4.       Grease the baking tin with butter and use one of the circular dough to cover the base and sides of the baking tin. Ease the dough carefully so that it doesn’t break. Cut the excess dough with a knife.

5.       Now fill in the apple filling and spread it uniformly.

6.       Cover it with the second circular dough. Cut the extra dough from the edges and crimp the edges using your fingers.

7.       Using a knife make 4-5 small 2inch slits from the centre of pie towards the edge. (to allow for steam to escape)

8.       Grease the top of the pie with milk.

9.       Once the oven is preheated, put in the pie and bake at 180 degree C for 45 min. some 5-10 min before the end, take it out, brush it with butter and resume the baking again.

10.   Serve it hot or cold. J

Note: 

1. Recipe said egg yolk for brushing the top of the pie but being veg, I replaced that with milk/butter. I believe egg yolk will give a better texture/glaze to the top.

2. My pie had a different shape owing to the usage of a cake baking tin and not the actual pie baking dish.. and hence it looked different. :-)

Daal Baati

It was raining here yesterday. A rain in between the gruelling heat of summer is so refreshingly welcome. M was back from office early yesterday and while having our evening snacks, we were discussing what to make  for dinner. The cool rainy whether prompted us to try making Daal-Baati - an awesome rajasthani delicacy. I have never made Daal-Baati on my own. At home, mom used to make it in Gas Tandoor. Snce I didn't have one, I never tried making it. Yesterday we thought of trying it in microwave - convection mode. Since the principle of cookng the Baati remains same - as in slow cooking in hot air - we reasoned that convection mode should also work. I have seen my mom and daadi make it countless times and hence was aware of the method. However just to ensure I dont miss anything, I called up my daadi for a quick recap. The recipe below is as per her directions.

You will need:

For Baati:

Wheat flour - 250 gm

Ghee - 2 tbsp ( the more the merrier :) )

Salt to taste

For Baati-filling:

Sattu ka atta - 100 gm

Ghee - 2 tsp

Green chillies, ginger & garlic paste - 1 tbsp

Red chilli powder - 1 tsp

Garam masala powder - 1 tsp

Dhania powder - 1 tsp

Haldi powder - 1/2 tsp

Ajwain - 1/2 tsp

Amchoor powder - 1 tsp

Juice of 1 lemon 

Salt to taste

For Daal:

Mix of 5 daals - totallung 2 cups ( equal portions of Toor daal, Yellow Moong daal, Green moong daal, Urad daal and Chana daal)
Dhania powder - 1 tsp

Haldi powder - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

For seasoning of the daal:

Ghee - 1 tbsp

Whole Jeera - 1 tsp

Mustard - 1 tsp

Bayleaf - 1 to 2

Cloves - 2

Green chillies, ginger & garlic paste - 1 tbsp

Garam masala powder - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Chopped corriander leaves

Preparation:

Baati:

1. Mix the wheat flour, ghee and salt. Using water knead it into a little tight dough. Keep aside.

2. For the filling, heat Ghee in a pan (Kadhai) and roast the Sattu flour for 5 min till it becomes little pink in colour. (Sattu is the powder of roasted chana daal so we need to roast it for a long time).

3. Move it into a bowl and add all the remaining ingredients mentioned in the filling section. Mix it well and keep aside.

4. Prepare small balls out of the wheat flour dough, stretch it with hands to make a small round puri and fill it with the Sattu filling. Seal it at the top. (Use the same method as done for filling katchoris). 

5. Similarly prepare all the baatis.

6. Preheat convection microwave for 10 min.

7. Place the baatis inside the microwave and heat in convection mode for 35 min (at 200 degrees - that's the max setting in my microwave)

8. Keep turning the baatis after every 10 min.

9. Once the baatis are done, take it out and put it in a bowl of ghee. Using fork make some holes into the baati so that the ghee can seep in. Once the baaati soaks the ghee, take it out and keep it in the hotcase.

Daal:

1. Dry roast all the daals in a pan till it changes color. 

2. Take it out and add water, salt, haldi powder, dhania powder and pressure cook it.
3. For the seasoning, heat ghee in a pan. Add jeera and mustard seeds.

4. Once it crackles, add bayleaf, cloves and chilli ginger garlic paste. (You can also add curry leaves to it)

5. Once it turns slight brown, add the cooked daal to it.

6. Let it simmer for about 5 min in low flame.

7. At the end, add garam masala powder and chopped corriander leaves and remove it from the flame.

Both daal and baati are now ready to eat. Here's how it looks :-)