{Un}traditional Apple & Cranberry Strudel

Has anyone else been affected by the Blackberry outage over the last day? I have had my Blackberry for about a year and a half...and I hate it! I always seem to have problems with it. It freezes (sometimes even mid-ring so I can't answer the phone!), the Internet access is horrible, emails and texts are delayed, my media card broke, my Twitter connection is horrible (which is why I hardly ever Tweet)...the list can go on and on. When my phone stopped receiving emails yesteray morning, it was the last straw. I threw it into the Hudson freaked out and decided that I need a new phone (of course, this was before I realized it as a worldwide outage, but still). Argh!   iPhone here I come!

Good thing there are yummy treats to keep me occupied. And make me happy. You know what else makes me happy? When it's one of the easiest treats ever, but only seems like you slaved over it for hours.

This past weekend, Shaun and I drove out to a local farm to pick up some fall goodies. I had been jonesing for a bit of apple cider, fresh doughnuts, many apple varieties and some crisp fall air. I got what I went for!

When we decided to make our Oktoberfest dinner, I knew that some kind of apple strudel would be the perfect finale, especially a homemade one containing freshly picked apples!

This is definitely not a traditional strudel. But it's so easy and so delicious that I'm not sure why anyone would ever not make this version. I'm fairly certain that it took all of 5 minutes to come together before leaving it in the oven to bake. In addition to crisp, sweet apples, I also added some dried cranberries for a bit of tartness and texture. I think the strudel would be great without them though too! I could also see brown sugar, pecans, or any other baking fruit as a substitute. I topped the strudels with a bit of light and fluffy vanilla ice cream.

If that's not the perfect dessert, I don't know what is.

Apple & Cranberry Strudel
*Adapted from Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry
1 egg
1 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour (plus extra for rolling out dough)
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 large baking apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
2 Tbsp dried cranberries (or  craisins)
1 sheet of puff pastry (1/2 of a 17.3-ounce package), thawed
Confectioners' sugar (for dusting)
vanilla ice cream (for topping)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix the sugar, flour and cinnamon together. In a mixing bowl, toss sugar mixture with the apples (I used one Macintosh apple and 1 Gala apple) and cranberries; set aside.

Flour your work surface and roll out the pastry with a rolling pin, with the short side facing you. The pastry should be rolled out to about 16x12 inches. Spread the apple mixture on the bottom half of the pastry only, leaving a small border around the edges.

Starting with the side facing you, roll up the pastry very carefully so as to gather the apple mixture inside of it but without ripping the dough. Once rolled up, tuck in the ends and place on a greased baking sheet. In a small bowl, beat the egg and water together. Cut small slits across the top of the pastry and brush top with egg mixture.

Bake for 35 minutes. Cool for 20 minutes and sprinkle with confectioners sugar. Serve warm with a heaping scoop of vanilla ice cream! Is your mouth watering yet?

Mine is!

Questions of the Day:

Have you had cell phone issues in the past? Or affected by Blackberry right now?

Are you a fan of apples around this time of year? What's your favorite kind? I love honeycrisp, macintosh, galas, and fujis!

psst...It's Handpicked Peaches day over on The Peach & The Pit! We rounded up some awesome links from around the web for ya!

Fall Flavor + Chanandeler Bong

Last night I arrived home with sopping wet feet, frizzy hair and pants that had to be peeled off of me.

Oh and a broken umbrella to boot.

Shaun spent the night doing one of his fantasy football drafts.

I made a butternut squash mac & cheese for dinner. It was so warm and creamy and salty and comforting. A perfect, guilt-free dinner on a stormy night. It was enjoyed while sitting on the couch in sweatpants and watching Friends reruns (--->still the best show of all time, in my opinion, and here's one of my favorite clips).

All of the above means only one thing. Fall, though maybe not completely here just yet (I'm sure there's a few sweltering days up Mother Nature's sleeve yet), is undoubtedly on the horizon. And although it's early, I can't help but be super excited about all the flavors that I've been missing all year. My mind started reeling at all the goodies that I could start concocting. And all the ones I concocted since I started blogging.

You see, I'm what you might call a pumpkin and apple freak. I love anything and everything that features these ingredients. And somehow, I never get sick of them either. Here's a few of my favorites from years passed. I can't wait to get cooking and baking these again this year!

Apple Cupcakes + Cinnamon Frosting

Pumpkin Coffee Syrup

 

Pumpkin Spice Cake + Honey Frosting

Ginger Snap Crusted Pumpkin Pie

 

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins + Sweet Spiced Glaze

Spicy Sweet Potato Wedges

 

Pumpkin Butter

Apple Pie (4 ways!)

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Maple Syrup Cupcakes

So there you have it. All the flavors of the season that I just cannot wait to dig into!

Questions of the Day:

What's your favorite comfort food on a rainy day? I love mac & cheese, tomato soup & grilled cheese, breakfast foods (like pancakes) and cake...lots of cake.

What fall flavors are you looking forward to? I love apple, pumpkin, cranberry, and sweet potato!

Two Girls, Two Guys, Four Pies - The Finale

Today we're wrapping up our Two Girls, Two Guys, Four Pies series with some apple pie superlatives and finally getting the guys' points of views on this little experiment of ours where we turned these gorgeous, juicy apples...

Into a full blown table of autumnal awesomeness...

Along with my friend Lindsey (this whole 1950's style playdate was here idea in fact), we baked up four pies, each of which using different ingredients and techniques. Our mission? To finally put to bed what makes a great apple pie.

And since our own opinions just weren't enough, we also roped our significant others into this experiment and charged them with participating in a blind taste test of all four pies. Somehow, I don't think they minded.

Shaun is no stranger to the taste test. He is and has always been my ultimate recipe tester and diligently gives me feedback whenever I request it. Coming home from work to a plate full of pie and an apartment smelling of apples wasn't too shabby either. And since he's typically not a dessert lover, I pracitically jumped for joy when I saw him breaking out a pen and paper to take notes on each pie. I call him the 'Alton Brown' of the family.

So let's get down to what you've been waiting for, shall we?

Best Crust
Rachel: Grandma Mary (#3) with special shoutout to Grandma Ople (#4) I made it myself after all!
Lindsey: Grandma Mary (#3) with special shoutout to Grandma Ople (#4)
Shaun: Grandma Mary (#3) with special shoutout to Grandma Ople (#4) I love the carmelization!
Eric: Grandma Mary (#3)

 

Best Filling
Rachel: Tie between Grandma Mary (#3) and The Joy of Cooking (#2)
Lindsey: The Joy of Cooking (#2) Maceration was the unexpected trick to performance balanced apples!
Shaun: The Joy of Cooking (#2)
Eric: Grandma Mary (#3)

Best on Day After
Rachel: Grandma Mary (#3) It was just as perfect as Day 1!
Lindsey: I didn’t have any more pie after that first day!
Shaun: Grandma Mary (#3)
Eric: Grandma Mary (#3) The apples weren't too syrupy and the crust held!

Best Overall
Rachel: Grandma Mary (#3) It's really hard to not be biased, but it was darn good!
Lindsey: Do I have to choose? I just love pie! But I love the way #4 cooked...especially the crispy top!
Shaun: Grandma Mary (#3) But maybe with #2’s filling
Eric: Grandma Mary (#3)

So while we all had varying takes on different aspects of the pies, there are a few things that Lindsey and I took away from this:

• Most importantly, baking pies all day would be the best, most fun job in the entire world, especially if we could do it together! That and making jams and soaps.

• Macerating apples seems to be a very important step in creating the perfect pie filling. Though Pie #3 was the most appley of the bunch, Pie #2 (the macerated version) had the perfect amount of sweetness, tartness, and texture of all the pies.
• In addition to the right technique, the right apples are key! You don't want a pile of sweet mush (not in this case, anyway). Tart apples are best for baking! We used a random mixture of Cortland, Macintosh and Spencer and we thought they were tops!

• Though we debated on the value of the homemade crust up until that very morning - is it really necessary? We've heard good things about Pillsbury premade crust! Do people really want to spend the time to make their own crust? Will it make that much of a difference? - we came to the conclusion that for proper research we must be able to taste both. And we were psyched that we did. Our final stance on the to-crust or not-to-crust issue? Making your own is completely worth the time. However, if you cannot make it, be it a time or pure intimidation issue, the refrigerated, premade kind is completely fine and was still extremely delicious. Just not as delicious as the real deal. And my tip on making your own crust? Just follow the instructions and do it slowly and carefully! Like many things on this blog, if I can do it, so can you!

To sum it up, we all had varying opinions on different parts of the pie, and the bottom line is that I think a few things could be combined to make one super pie! I can't wait to try my grandmother's homemade crust with macerated apple filling and a lattice top that's carmelized with a buttery sugar mixture. It could be like a super pie! And of course, I'll document the entire thing if you want to follow along.

So there you have it. Our lengthy roundup of 4 amazingly delicious pies. And the truth of the matter? You can't really go wrong with any of them, since as we tasted each one, one was just a bit more delicious than the next. As Shaun said, The barbershop couldn't split hairs this thin!

If I had to recommend the best for ease of use? I'd say go with Pie #2. To get a little more fancy but still use the premade crust, I recommend #4.

Now I want to know, what's your favorite apple pie recipe? Have you ever made a recipe over and over in different ways to try and get it right?

And our bonus question is...what should be next in the Two Girls, Two Guys series?

Psst...want to see the Two Girls, Two Guys, Four Pies series from the beginning? Check out Part I, Part II and Part III!