fall / apple pastry ~

So what happened to Monday and Tuesday?  It's Wednesday already.  It's hard to believe in two more days it'll be the first day of Fall already.  Time sure has been flying by for me.  I guess that's a good thing, because when time drags on in life sometimes even the most simplistic of things sure can become mundane and boring.

turban gourds

The other day, on our way home from the grocery store, we stopped over by our friends, John & Dorothy L., to buy some eggs.  They had some onions sitting by their door step that they had just harvested from the garden.  John gave me one.  Just look at this bugger compared to the bag of onions that I had just purchased at the store.

Wow... there's as much onion in just that one onion as there is in the bagful I had bought.  That big ol' onion is going to make some huge onion rings!  I didn't plant my own onions this year in the garden.  I don't know why??? I guess I just forgot.
~~

I did a little baking yesterday ... I had some apples that I cooned off of Mom's tree :)

I made two huge pans of an apple filled pastry.  It took awhile to make this recipe; but it was so worth it.  We ~ Dear Hubby, Mom, son, brother and myself, ate a third of one while it was still warm, fresh from the oven.  The other 2/3rd got cut into two pieces, one of which Sam devoured last night before he went home, and the other third I put into Slim's lunch box this morning.  The other pan I cut that into half and wrapped and put into the freezer for future consumption.  Yum ... they really turned out good.

Here's the recipe I concocted ~ mind you ... this made two BIG pastries so you might want to cut the recipe in half or even make a bunch of smaller pastries to freeze for later on.  I think I'm going to make another batch of this dough and put some filling in, such as blueberries or a raspberry filling and try freezing them before baking.  It should work out just fine.

Mel's BIG APPLE PASTRIES

Dough:
4 Cups of flour
1/3 Cup sugar
2 pkg. dry yeast
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 Cup evaporated milk
1/3 Cup butter
1/4 Cup water
2 whole eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Filling:
8 Cups peeled and cored, chopped apples
4 Tbsp. Minute Tapioca
4 Tbsp. butter
1/2 Cup water
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 Cup sugar

Sugar Glaze:
2 Cups powdered sugar
milk

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, yeast and salt.  In a small saucepan, heat the milk, butter and water until very warm; but not boiling.  If it's too hot you can kill the action of the yeast.  Gradually, add the milk mixture to the flour mixture.  Lightly beat the eggs with the vanilla in a small bowl and then incorporate into the dough mix.

On a lightly floured board, knead the dough for about 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic.  Put into a greased bowl and cover with a dish cloth.  Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about an hour.

In the meantime, while your dough is rising ~ prepare your filling.

Add the peeled and chopped apples to a fry pan or large skillet.  Add the tapioca, butter, water, cinnamon and sugar.  Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the apples begin to soften and the tapioca begins to cook and become bubbly.  Turn off the heat and let cool until your ready to assemble.

To assemble the pastry.  Cut the raised dough in two equal pieces.  On a lightly floured board roll out a piece of the dough 12x15 inches.  Place onto a greased jelly roll pan.  Add half of the filling down the center of the dough.  Fold the edges up and over each other to seal.  Cut small slits almost through the dough the length of the pastry, this will release the steam while baking so your pastry doesn't become soggy. 

For the second pan ... repeat the process.

Cover both pans with a dish cloth and let the dough rest and rise a second time, about 1/2 hour.  

Place into a preheated 350 degree oven.  Bake 30 minutes or until golden browned. Cool slightly.
Top with a sugar glaze if desired.  Enjoy!

~~
I haven't baked like that for awhile ... it felt good to be back in the kitchen playing with ingredients to see what I could whip up :)

I also concocted a recipe for some homemade braunschweiger ~ more on that later :)

Until next time...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel