Ten Top Tips for Baking An Apple Pie

"Easy as apple pie" - how many times have you heard that? Well now you can make make apple pie like a pro and not have a nervous breakdown in the process! Here are my top ten tips for making the perfect apple pie every time.

1) Apples! Apples! Apples! The most important part of the apple pie is obviously the apples. If you are lucky and live in an area with apple groves then pick a combination of tart and sweet apples and put them in a pie within 24 hours. If you live nowhere near an apple grove I recommend Granny Smith apples for your pie. The tartness combined with the sweetness of the sugar/cinnamon mixture creates an amazing taste. Another combination that works great is McIntosh and Cortland apples but only if the apples are fresh.

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2) Don't burn the crust. When baking an apple pie, one of the big problems is burnt edges of the crust. To prevent this problem cover the edges of your pie with tin foil. But don't scrunch it down around the sides. Because the foil reflects the heat, the pastry edges may end up under baked. Or, you can actually purchase an edge guard at your local kitchen supply store that is placed over the edges of the pie to protect them from burning.

Ten Top Tips for Baking An Apple Pie

3) Taste the apples! Once you add your cinnamon/sugar mixture taste test your apples. Do not be afraid to add more brown sugar and cinnamon to your mixture. You can't spoil something good by adding something good to it!

4) Extra weight is a good thing!! If you bake your pie shell prior to adding the apple filling the pie shell might inflate. To prevent this from happening add dry beans to the bottom of the shell prior to placing it in the oven. Or you can actually purchase weighted beads that can be placed in the bottom of the shell to prevent the pastry from rising.

5) A mountain of apples is a good thing. Always prepare more apples than you think you will need. Make a mountain in the pie shell when you add the apples. Stretch the top pie crust over the mountain of apples as best you can. You will find while the pie bakes the mountain of apples will deflate. You will be left with a pie that has a sufficient amount of apples. Without the mountain you may end up with a caved in pie and few apples per slice.

6) The garnish: Ice cream. Don't forget to offer ice cream with each slice of pie. Be imaginative. Vanilla ice cream is the standard scoop to add to a slice of apple pie. Try cinnamon or butter pecan ice cream instead. Cookies and Cream ice cream works very well, as does Pistachio and Peach ice cream.

7) Apple Pie with a twist! Instead of the standard apple pie, look for variations of the recipe. Try Dutch Apple pie or French Apple pie or apple pie combinations like Rhubarb/Apple or Cranberry-Raisin-Apple pie.

8) Caramel yum!! Instead of ice cream, drizzle melted caramel over your apple pie. This gives your pie an added sweetness that will impress your family and friends.

9) Sweetness other than sugar. If you do not think your apples are sweet enough but you do not want to add sugar, try 1tbsp lemon juice, some finely grated lemon zest, and 2 tbsp melted apple jelly. The addition of the jam adds a special sweetness to the pie.

10) Pretty as a picture. The top of the apple pie must be vented with a few slices of the knife through the top pie shell. Instead of simple slits add a pattern or pretty decoration. Cut your loved one's initials in the pie shell, or a heart, or star. Your imagination is the limit!

Ten Top Tips for Baking An Apple Pie

Maggie gives you easy to make dessert recipes for all occasions! From every day dessert to special holidays, Maggie has it all! Best of all, these are "yummy-tummy" tested and guaranteed to be a hit without giving you a nervous breakdown in the kitchen!

Check out her site at http://easytomakedessertrecipes.com/ for more easy to make dessert recipes. New recipes are added every day!

History of Baking

Baking has been many cultures' favorite technique for creating snacks, desserts, and accompaniments to meals for many years. Now, it is very well-known as the method for creating sweets and all sorts of wondrous mouthwatering pastries. In ancient history, the first evidence of baking occurred when humans took wild grass grains, soaked it in water, and mixed everything together, mashing it into a kind of broth-like paste. Then, the paste was cooked by pouring it onto a flat, hot rock, resulting in a bread-like substance. Later, this paste was roasted on hot embers, which made bread-making easier, as it could now be made anytime fire was created. Around 2500 B.C., records show that the Egyptians already had bread, and may have actually learned the process from the Babylonians. The Greek Aristophanes, around 400 B.C., also recorded information that showed that tortes with patterns and honey flans existed in Greek cuisine. Dispyrus was also created by the Greeks around that time and widely popular; was a donut-like bread made from flour and honey and shaped in a ring; soaked in wine, it was eaten when hot.

In the Roman Empire, baking flourished widely. In about 300 B.C., the pastry cook became an occupation for Romans (known as the pastillarium). This became a very highly respected profession because pastries were considered decadent, and Romans loved festivity and celebration. Thus, pastries were often cooked especially for large banquets, and any pastry cook who could invent new types of tasty treats, unseen at any other banquet, was highly prized. Around 1 A.D., there were more than three hundred pastry chefs in Rome alone, and Cato wrote about how they created all sorts of diverse foods, and flourished because of those foods. Cato speaks of an enormous amount of breads; included amongst these are the libum (sacrificial cakes made with flour), placenta (groats and cress), spira (our modern day flour pretzels), scibilata (tortes), savaillum (sweet cake), and globus apherica (fritters). A great selection of these, with many different variations, different ingredients, and varied patterns, were often found at banquets and dining halls. To bake bread, the Romans used an oven with its own chimney and had grain mills to grind grain into flour.

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Eventually, because of Rome, the art of baking became widely known throughout Europe, and eventually spread to the eastern parts of Asia. Bakers often baked goods at home and then sold them in the streets-children loved their goods. In fact, this scene was so common that Rembrandt illustrated a work that depicted a pastry chef selling pancakes in the streets of Germany, and young children surrounding him, clamoring to get a sample. In London, pastry chef sold their goods in handcarts, which were very convenient shops on wheels. This way, they developed a system of "delivery" baked goods to people's households, and the demand for baked goods increased greatly as a result. Finally, in Paris, the first open-air café of baked goods was developed, and baking became an established art throughout the entire world.

History of Baking

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Also is a working Chef in North Carolina.

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