Apple Crumble Pie

I made these Apple Crumble Pie on friday night! Finished my marketing paper at the evening, and prepared the dough and crumble filling at night..

If I were to make any tart desserts, I like to prepare my tart shells the day before, store it in the freezer and use them the next day.. I'm really really extremely slow in moulding the tart dough into the aluminum cups.. So I usually start the day before, if not I think just by doing this apple crumble pie might took me 5 hours! (Yah, thats how slow I'm)

As compared to the first time making of tarts, I think I fare better this time round.. I took the advice from Aunty Yochana in avoiding over-handling of dough.. A "just-right" dough should not be oily to touch, and my dough falls under that category! So I'm happy! =)

I always make my tarts in aluminium cups, and I really have the hardest time ever trying to mould the dough in.. Cos I'm afraid that I might distort the shape of the aluminum cups.. (that explains why I work like an old lady) =P

The dough yields lots of tart shells (or maybe I mould them too thin), and it is quite crumbly after baking, so when my family and friends who tired it commented that its hard to hold up the pie..

It might be that I added in too much egg (an accident). Next time round I'll cut down on the butter and egg to yield a crispier shell, or simply I just stick with the Egg Tart shells.. I love them!

The box full of tarts for my friends..

I adapted the recipe from KC, posted by Yangone.

Apple Crumble Pie

Ingredients

(A) Crust

125g butter

225g plain flour

1/2 beaten egg

(B)Filling

4 apples, peeled, cored and sliced

2 tbsp brown sugar

sprinkles of cinnamon powder

lemon juice from a slice of lemon

some water

1/2 tbsp corn flour

(C)Topping

70g butter

1 cup self-raising flour

3 tbsp sugar

Methods

1. Make filling first by cooking the apples with the rest of the ingredients with some water. Add cornflour to thicken.
2. Make the crust by combining the butter, flour and egg to form into a dough. Press dough on to a pie pan. Bake at preheated oven of 180C for about 8mins (or till the base is dry).
3. For the crumble, gently rub the butter and flour to form into crumbs and add sugar and mix well.
4. After crust is baked, pour in the apple filling and sprinkle top with the crumble. Bake at 200C for about 30 - 45 mins (i think) or till crust is nicely browned.
   
   

1 small problem would be that using 4 apples is seriously not enough.. I'm only able to add 1 tablespoon of filling into each tart whereas there's still room for another 1.5 tbsp.. Next time I shall up-up the apples to 6! ( I like my tarts to be bursting with fillings!)

Families and friends gave raving reviews for this pie! And I'm really happy! Brought 11 to school for friends to eat during the group study.. and I went home with the empty box! I'm really so happy that my bakes are appreciated and loved by all

Made a mental note to self, to make this for my maternal grandma family and B's family.

Good things are meant to be shared, right?

Woppes, still have 6 tart shells left, which means, more tarts rolling in!!!

Chicken Pie

After reading some info on chicken pies, the craving for it starts to kicks in.. And for the whole week I was craving for some pies.. Hmm.. not really craving to eat it, but rather to try my hands on it!

I'm even silly enough to think of making chicken pie on a friday night, but then, I realised that I don't have chicken.. =(

So the next day I went to market early to get some really fresh chicken breast meat and other ingredients.. And with those stuffs on hand, I kick start my saturday with CHICKEN PIE!

See the chicken pie full of fillings.. Hee.. the way I like mine to be. I find that the commercial ones are thick in skin and very little fillings. So, nothing can beat homemake, you can alter the recipe to suit your family's preferences.

The pastry tart filled up to the brim with chicken.

Frying the potatoes.. Regret didn't add in more potatoe, and I should have mash 1/3 of it, my dad like slightly mashy potatoe.

Left the chicken to cool down before spooning in.

Seal up the tarts and brush with eggs.. Ready to go into the oven!

These chicken pies really taste yummy, I like the tart especially. The additon of yoghurt makes the tart more fragrant. However do note that the dough is quite soft to handle, thus it requires some chilling before handling.

I did play cheat as well, instead of rolling out the dough, I just pinch some and press it into the pan, that explains why my chicken pie looks a abit on the ugly side..

I use the recipe from My Culinary Journal.

Chicken Pie

Filling: (adjust to own preference)

1 big onion diced
diced cooked potatoes

mixed vegetable

Sliced button mushrooms

2 chicken breast, diced
oil
½ cup water

Seasonings :

1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp water

1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp oyster sauce

salt n pepper to taste

Method

1. Filling: Heat 2 tbsp of oil and fry potatos till golden, set aside.
2. In a clean wok, heat 2 tbsp of oil, fry onions till transparent, add in mixed vege, mushrooms, chicken, potatos.
3. Add in water and cook for about 5 minutes. Add in seasoning.
4. Add in cornstarch, stir to thicken mixture. Cool and set aside.
5. Dough: Put all the ingredients, except yoghurt, in a mixing bowl.
6. Rub butter into flour mixture until like breadcrumbs., Add in yoghurt and mix to a dough.
   Dough will be very soft so need to keep it refrigerated for at least 30 mins.
7. Assemble: Roll out dough to place in a pie dish, scoop 2 - 3 tbsp ingredients, cut another layer of dough to cover. Make holes on the surface of dough to allow hot air to escape during baking.
8. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes at 180 celcius.

This recipe yields 4 6-holes muffin pan size. Which is just nice from my family of 6. We have this for lunch. My dad actually commented that the filling is even nicer than those POLAR and other shop sells. It's quite rewarding to receive compliments from family members you love, because at least you know that they are enjoying what you prepared for them!