Bake or Break

Classic Apple Pie

Jennifer had her hands full this Thanksgiving as she had taken on the majority of the cooking for 16 people. I was able to take off Wednesday to lend a hand as needed with her numerous concoctions and to work on three of my own. Of course, given my favorite baker’s aversion to raw meat, the turkey was all mine (this year, anyway, as I was not struck down by some wretched little bug). I also made a focaccia seasoned to compliment the dressing Jennifer made (which, unfortunately, never made it in front of a camera). My third contribution was an apple pie. I’ve been itching to make a pie since watching Alton Brown’s pie episode, Crust Never Sleeps, so I based my pie on his method. The crust preparation was discussed at length in another post, so I’ll move right on to the filling.

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Alton Brown’s Pie Crust

Jennifer and I have a strong personal attachment to pies. Sure, it’s more the mathematical π variety, but I’m certainly not one to turn down a pretty piece of pie. Considering that the crust is literally and figuratively the foundation of a good pie, when I was tasked with making an apple pie for our Thanksgiving festivities, I naturally turned to our chief food engineer, Alton Brown. Actually, I’d seen his episode Crust Never Sleeps ages ago and have been yearning to try out his techniques ever since.

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Alton Brown’s Pizza

In honor and anticipation of this weekend’s cooking seminar in Nashville, I made Alton Brown’s pizza dough as seen in the classic episode Flat is Beautiful and in his most recent book, I’m Just Here for More Food. In fact, I’m sitting in the passenger seat as Jennifer drives us on the first leg of [...]

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Garlic Knots

Our favorite place to be is New York City. So much culture — so much food! My NYC guilty pleasure is an order of garlic knots from any pizzeria, sometimes instead of pizza. As a guest baker (and full-time husband), I made Emeril’s garlic knot recipe. The pizza dough portion of the recipe was a [...]

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