Apple Pie-Rogies

Tiny apple pies. Because it's too hot to cook a whole one.

 

And because one of the requests on the cookie board was "apple cinnamon" and I really wanted to make the cookies that look just like tiny pies that Taneasha sent me a link to (it wasn't really a recipe since all it did was reshape premade dough and fill it with premade apple filling). But for some reason, that seemed like a lot of work. So instead I made perogies.

No, I don't understand how my brain works either.

Apple Pie-Rogies

the lovely crustiness

• 1 c butter
• 3 c sifted flour
• 1 c icing (powdered) sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 10 - 12 tbsp milk

the tasty fillingness

• 3 apples
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon

apparently we're playing the game of "guess which ingredient isn't in the pic" again

Peel and dice your apples into small pieces.

Toss them into a pot with the rest of the filling stuff and set the burner to medium.

You're going to have to stir these from time to time, but not so often that you can't make the crust while they simmer.

Chop the butter into smallish chunks (and if you stole one of them for the filling, I promise I won't tell) and add the flour and the sugar and the salt to the bowl.

Yes we're making pastry. No you don't have to freak out.

Really, it's one of the easiest things to make. You just have to resist the urge to squish the dough between your fingers. It's gotta be one of those strange lizard-brain things, the urge to knead dough. Like cats do, and small children. Anyway, don't.

Cut the flour/sugar/salt into the butter until you have something that looks kinda like crumbs.

(pic of crumbs goes here... I forgot to take one, you have to use your imagination)

Sprinkle about 6 or 8 tbsp of the milk around on top of the crumbs and then using a wooden spoon CUT through the dough.

Don't stir, cut. From time to time, you'll need to scrape the spoon off. Keep adding a tbsp of milk at a time and cutting through the dough, until you get a shaggy mess that will hold together like damp sand.

You are allowed to squish it this one time only. :P

Turn the crumbly shaggy mess out onto the counter. Don't panic.

Like the nursery rhyme says, "pat it and roll it." Pat it down, then fold (roll) half of it on top of the other half, and keep doing that until it looks like this:

I know, I know, I need the in between pics so you'll believe me that it works and I'm not pulling some kind of Food Network bullshit, but I've only got two hands and they were both covered in shortcrust dough at the time (that's what we're making here: shortcrust dough).

Your apples should be done now by the way.

Chop the dough in half and roll out one half of it. You want it about 1/8 of an inch, or aboout 3 mm thick. 

Using a 2.5 inch cookie or biscuit cutter, or really big wine glass, you should be able to get just over a dozen from half the dough. Ultimately, between the two halves and rerolling the scraps, you should end up with about 3 dozen cookies.

Drop about a half teaspoon of filling on one side of the circle.

Fold over the other side and press the edges together.

I pressed mine with a fork: looks fancy and encourages the edges to stay together.

Oh, um, you should have preheated the oven to between 300 and 325. My oven was being a fucking wack job last night, and I have no idea how hot it was in there, but I'm guessing it was in that range.

Brush the tiny pies with an egg wash of one egg (also not in the ingredients pic) and a few tbsp of milk. You need these extra proteins on top to make sure the pies come out shiney and at least a little browned.

Poke a few holes in the top with a toothpick. If the steam has an easy way to get out it won't try busting through the pressed-together edges.

These take 16 - 18 minutes at whatever temperature my oven was. If the oven is too hot, you'll have very browned bottoms and still white tops. The top will be cooked, but it won't look that way.

They're tiny, they're tasty, they're totally worth the folding and forking.

That is some tender and flaky crust, lemme tell ya. And yes, you can do it too.

I really wanted to make some kind of glaze to go on these (perogies need sour cream), but it was late, and I didn't want to make more dishes, so I left them as is. Plus, I couldn't decide if I should try to make something with sour cream in keeping with the theme, or go with a caramel.

What would you glaze these with?

Sweet Madeleine

A different kind of cookie.

Very soft and cake-like. Cakies!

These are one of those fancy seeming french food things that people are scared to try making. But there's no reason to be afraid of these plain little things.

And they are quite plain. I have no idea how they got their reputation. Gossip is a crazy thing. Someone somewhere probably heard something out of context and misinterpreted the statement and then of course went running off to tell everyone they know. Who all of course did the same thing.

I once made a joke about gossip that turned into a rumour: some editor had left a publisher and I commented about the gossip flying and jokingly made a ridiculous speculation; a few hours later someone started a thread on the forum where I'd made the joke about the editor going off to do the very thing I'd joked about. She's see my speculation repeated on some other forum, but not as a joke! I think it even made it to a blog or two.

I laughed my ass off. I'm still proud of that one.

Also proud that I managed to make nearly 7 dozen madeleines in about 2 hours. And that includes dishes.

Madeleines

**these are the quantities for about 2 dozen**

**I tripled the recipe!!**

• 2 eggs
• 2/3 c sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1 c flour
• 1/2 c butter

There is absolutely nothing fancy or difficult about this ingredient list.

You also don't need fancy tools or mixers or anything to make them.

First thing you should do is melt the butter.

Next, sift the flour.

I'm usually not an advocate of the sifting step, but in this case, I think it's a good idea. Old school baking recipes were done by mass (weight) not by volume, and when you sift the flour, you lighten it. A cup of packed flour weights a lot more than a cup of sifted.

There, that's the toughest part of this recipe. Sifting flour. OMG AN EXTRA STEP!!!

I sifted mine into a bowl and let it hang out there until I needed it.

Measure a tablespoon or so of butter out of the half cup that you melted, and add it to a bit of flour in a small bowl.

Rather than butter and flour your pans, you're going to use this mixture to flour-butter them. I am loving this idea. I covered the leftovers and put them in the fridge; I'll let you know how it works out on the next cake I bake!

Crack the eggs into a big bowl, add the sugar and stir with a wooden spoon. You don't even have to beat them. No whisking. Just stir. So unfancy.

Once the eggs and sugar have been stirred to a bright yellow, add the lemon zest and vanilla.

You can leave the zest out, or replace it with orange, if you'd prefer. I'm contemplating replacing it with lavender flowers.

Spoon the sifted flour into the measuring cup, and level the top. Trust me, this way, it will weigh a lot less than if you'd just spooned it from the bag.

Again, a plain old stir is all you need to do to get the flour mixed into the batter.

Pour the remaining butter around the edges of the bowl and once again, stir it in.

You should end up with a sticky feeling batter that makes a wide ribbon when you lift the spoon from the bowl.

When you let the batter rest for a minute, it will thicken, but as you stir it, it will start to feel thinner.

So, we've used all the same basic ingredients that are in pretty much every other cookie, but we've put them together in a very different way. That's what appealed to me about this recipe. Cream-butter-and-sugar-add-eggs-and-vanilla can get a bit mindlessly repetitive when you bake cookies almost every weekend.

Plus, the pans. I'm not fond of single use implements, and the shape is a very distinctive part of madeleines. I borrowed these ones from a coworker, but I'm pretty sure I'll be buying a set of my own. These things are way too easy, fun, and tasty to never make again.

Rub the flour-butter mixture into the molds while the oven preheats to 375. A little hotter than usual.

Drop a tablespoon or so of batter into each spot. Underfilling these things is better than overfilling them.

If your molds are completely full, bake them for 15 minutes. If partially like these ones, only 12 or 13 minutes is enough.

The edges will be crispy, the shell side golden, and the strange bump that forms on the top (which is apparently some kind of madeleine requirement) will be soft and buttery.

And then you dust them with powdered sugar.

I don't seem to have a light enough touch to "dust" anything.

They are tasty without the sugar too!

I can't help but wonder if the first ones were baked in the shells they resemble.