hi hi, sweetie pie!

We have a Double Pie challenge today!

Having combed through the Internet for good pie recipes, LB and I just went crazy over two in particular. Shall we make a sweet dessert pie? Or a savoury pie? Oh heck... let's do both!


Part I: Apple Crumble Pie

I found this lovely apple crumble pie recipe from my favourite site, All Recipes. Hmmm, not too hard to make, just needed the right pie dish and shortcrust pastry. The other ingredients are easily found. After shopping for the necessary items the day before, we synchronised time to 2:00 p.m. Malaysian time (8:00 a.m. in Italy) for the first pie-making session.

Note on the pie crust:
I found some ready-made shortcrust pastry packs by Pampas in Cold Storage, Ikano Power Centre. They also have pastry blocks (both shortcrust and puff types) which you could roll out with a pin, but I decided to take the easy way out and bought the sheets instead. It's triple the price too, for that convenience - RM14.99 for 6 sheets, instead of RM5.49 for a pastry block.

INGREDIENTS:
1 (9 inch) deep dish pie crust
5 cups apples - peeled, cored and thinly sliced
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup white sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons butter




DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C.) Arrange apple slices in unbaked pie shell.



Mix 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over apples.



Mix 1/3 cup sugar with flour; cut in butter until crumbly. Spoon mixture over apples. Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until apples are soft and top is lightly browned.




RESULTS:
Oh, crumble-me-apples! This is an absolute must try recipe if you have the time to do it. The applesauce from the mix of apple juice, sugar and cinnamon is to faint for! Eat it while it's fresh and warm too, because then the top pastry crumble would still be irresistibly crunchy to bite into. Want a slice?





I had a peek at LB's apple crumble pie photos. His looks waaaayyyy yummier, as usual. Why does his pie crust look so much better? Must be all that Italian ingredients that make the difference! Ha-ha!


Coming up next...
Part II: The Savoury Twin

* * * * *

Part II: Chi(cken) Pie

Not just one hour passed after our Apple Crumble Pie post, LB said, "Eh, faster! Let's make the Chicken Pot Pie now!" Waaaa!!!

Ok, I've never done savoury pies before. Ermm... make that, I've not cooked savoury dishes much, except for kerabu glass noodles. So this Chicken Pot Pie was a real challenge for me, especially since Mom was also doing her share of cooking, and we had to elbow each other for the stove!


INGREDIENTS:
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cubed
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup frozen green peas
1/2 cup sliced celery
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
2/3 cup milk
2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts

Notes:
This recipe serves 8. Cut down or add where necessary.
I omitted the celery seed; I couldn't find any in the supermarkets.
For the pie crusts, I only used one sheet of puff pastry for the top.



DIRECTIONS:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C.)
• In a saucepan, combine chicken, carrots, peas, and celery. Add water to cover and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and set aside.
• In the saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and celery seed. Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Remove from heat and set aside.
• Place the chicken mixture in bottom pie crust. Pour hot liquid mixture over. Cover with top crust, seal edges, and cut away excess dough. Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

RESULTS:
Smells good, smells good! I took a whiff when I peeked into the oven after 10 minutes. The puff pastry was slowly rising up and up and up... Waaa!!! It didn't turn out all that gourmet-looking, but the taste of it was certainly gooooood. It's similar to the DOME chicken pie, with a bit of variation here and there. I served this for dinner, and it was gone, all gone! Luckily I had a dinner party of 7 to help polish off the pie, otherwise I might have to have it for lunch and dinner the next couple of days.




Oooh, I can't get over at how pretty LB's chi pie was!! So the artistic, with the twistie border and heart in the middle. Awwww... looks too good to eat! I just wanna take it home and keep it under my pillow, and maybe have a spoonful of luv every now and then. *grin*

*SIGH!*
*beached whale...*


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