Apple-cheddar pie

All photos in this post are made by Annie

Maybe you’re wondering why these pies have a little bit of mess around them?
Well, it’s not a hard question to address. That’s just because when you’re dealing with delicious homemade APPLE pies, you don’t have time to arrange all your fancy stuff. You simply want to dig into your piece of pie immediately after the oven while it is still hot, juicy and extremely tasty. Furthermore, if you share your pie with a friend and a couple glasses of wines… You have to be super fast!

So it was the day when dear Annie from MontgomeryFest came to my place to have baking date. I’m a huge fan of friends gatherings around the great food, funny stories and all those quality time feelings. And girls date gives you everything from above plus, if you’re lucky and your friend is an awesome photographer, you’ll get a bunch of lovely photos from the process. Win-win situation! 🙂

I was in charge for the recipe choice and I made it to an apple-cheddar pie from “First prize pies” book because: a) autumn and apples are like BFF and b) little cheese party never killed nobody. Getting ahead of myself, I will tell you only one thing: it was a right choice.

For the pie crust:
makes around 5 small double-crust pies

112 g butter, very cold
60 ml whole milk
1/2 tbsp light-colored vinegar
170 g flour
30 g shredded shard Cheddar
1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Cut the butter into small cubes and return it to freezer to cool. In a separate cup stir together the milk and vinegar, refrigerate the mixture until it’s ready to use.

In a bowl of stand mixer with paddle attachment stir together flour, cornstarch, sugar and salt. Add the butter and cheese to dry ingredients and work with patience on a low speed until the fat has been reduced to small pea-sized chunks. Start to slowly pour cold milk mixture, the dough should begin to come together. Turn off mixer, transfer dough to the table and refine it with hands if necessary.

Roll out dough between two pieces of lightly floured parchment paper about 3-4mm thick. Place the sheet to refrigerator and let it rest for 1-2 hours.

           

For the apple filling:
3 large apples, Granny Smith or the ones which can hold their shape after baking
70 g packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Egg wash, for glaze
Granulated sugar, for garnish
60 g shredded extra-sharp Cheddar cheese, for topping

Peel the apples, remove its core and cut into small cubes. In a large bowl whisk together the brown sugar, ginger and cinnamon. Add apples and toss to coat.

Preheat the oven to 220 C/425 F.
Transfer dough from the refrigerator, roll it out more if necessary and cut circles a little bit larger in size than pie plates. Line the plates with crust and fill them with apple filling. Brush the edges with eggs wash and cover with a second layer of the dough, trim the edges and press to seal. Brush the crust with eggs wash and sprinkle granulated sugar over the top. Cut vents into the top crust to allow steam to escape during baking.

Bake pies for 15 minutes, rotating them once halfway through. Lower the temperature to 175 C/350 F and continue to bake for another 20 minutes. Pull over the pies and sprinkle the Cheddar all over the tops crust. Bake pies for additional 10-15 minutes or until the crust is golden, the cheese is melted and the filling is thick.

Transfer the pies to a wire rack and allow them to cool or… start to eat them right away. I know, apple pie is somewhat hard to resist!