“The people who influence you are the people who believe in you.”
Henry Drummond
Wholewheat Apple Walnut Cheddar Thyme Hand Pies … pies for a day like today that honours the humble pie. Handiwork of a genius foodie who equated Pi Day to Pie day ….and the rest as they say is history. In taste terms these turned out to be quite delicious. I think they are a fab fit for Pie day which incidentally falls today on the 14th of March. {Read 3.14}
There was a time a couple of years ago when I never missed doing a pie for Pie Day. The whole concept had me enchanted. With a deep dislike {read hatred} for math in school, the very concept of 22/7=3.14 being applied to mathematical problems flew over the top of my head. My poor father would break his head trying to drill some math intelligence into me. Never happened.
Then came food blogging, the Daring Bakers, and a LOT of new foodie friends. We had loads in common. We would wake up and hop into twitter from right across the globe, and break into a twitter chat! It was an obsession, and a load of good was born out of it too. It was in March one year when, much to our amazement, someone started a chain asking to make pies for Pi Day? Most of us crawled out from under the rock … it was a huge YES!
Pi Day is an American annual celebration commemorating the mathematical constant π (pi). Pi Day is observed on March 14 (or 3/14 in the month/day date format), 3, 1, and 4 are the first three significant digits of π in decimal form. In 2009, the United States House of Representatives supported the designation of Pi Day.
I’ve had some great pie baking on my blog. I credit a lot of what I’ve learnt to the Daring Bakers. Without them I wouldn’t have been half the baker I currently am. Some pies were FUN all the way like this Pie Bird & A Strawberry Pie I made after watching the film Life of Pi. I loved it!Some pie baking memories are poignant like the time there was a call for International Pie Day in honour of Jennifer Perillo. Jenifer’s Mikey loved Peanut Butter Cream Pie and she kept postponing making it for him. Then suddenly one day it was too late. I couldn’t make peanut butter cream pie as I had no peanut butter or cream cheese at home, but I made a no-bake Upside Down Mango Quark Cheesecake Pie. So was talking to the Ruchira yesterday and she said she was making a yummy Cheese & Bacon Pie … and the first thing that came to my mind was Pie Day. She was like huh? There’s something like Pie Day? So the mathematical equation was duly explained. Was she excited or what. She loved the very idea, and that in turn got me going. I would do pie too, hand pies!
What a memorable day today was. Just the motivation I needed! No time to do grocery so I had to work with what I had on hand. Apples & thyme. Walnuts and cheddar are pantry staples, so I knew just what to make. Not one for an APF pastry, I decided to challenge myself. Would do a wholewheat version … and surprise, surprise, it worked beautifully. Crisp and light. You wouldn’t miss the normal pastry at all!
Shortcrust pastry needs delicate handling; don’t overwork it. Make sure the cut in butter is pea sized. Add just enough liquid so that it comes together comfortably, little more than just staying together than pinched. Pull it together in a ball, don’t knead the dough. The pastry gets tough. Cling wrap it into a flat disk and chill for a couple of hours. Who doesn’t like a good rest? The pastry does too. Mine got an overnight rest so I had little work for this morning. I did the filling last night too so basically I was just down to rolling and pinching today!
I got the eggs out for a glaze. Then decided to keep it a 100% vegetarian. Someone on FB posted a honey glaze ages ago. Unfortunately I cant remember her name, but I remember honey! I love the the goldenish brown hue it gave my pastry. It’s a great choice if you want to keep a bake a 100% egg free. I used to do a single cream wash in the past. Honey is my new wash to go!
The flavours are beautiful too. Apples and walnuts are good old friends, cinnamon ties them together. Thyme and cheddar stirred in some magic. What a pleasing bite these had. Sweet little hand pies, just perfect for Pie Day. Despite being tired to bits with renovation on at home, a little nudge from a friends is all it took. It’s difficult to be optimistic all day, every day; and sometimes we need a little nudge to get on track! That is the power of being #together!
So I manged to bake pie to mark the day. Something else good also happened today. I walked 10,000 steps with the GOQii fitness band. What’s that you might ask? More about that on my next post!
[print_this]Recipe: Wholewheat Apple Walnut Cheddar Thyme Hand Pies
Summary: Wholewheat Apple Walnut Cheddar Thyme Hand Pies … these pies carry a tale of their own. In taste terms as well. They turned out to be quite delicious, a fab fit for Pie day which incidentally falls today on the 14th of March. Makes 8-10 small hand pies.
Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 1 hour Ingredients:
Wholewheat Short Crust Pastry
150g whole wheat flour
25g all purpose flour
85g unsalted butter, diced and chilled
pinch salt
15g brown sugar
75g yogurt
1tsp lime juice
Filling
300g apples {2 medium}
1 tsp lime juice
7g {1tsp} corn flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
30g walnuts, finely chopped
30g brown sugar
Few sprigs thyme
50g mature cheddar, crumbled
Honey wash
15ml honey
1/2 tsp water
Method:
Wholewheat Short Crust Pastry
Place both flours, salt and sugar in bowl of food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Add chilled butter cubes and pulse for a few seconds until broken up but bigger than pea sized bits.
Add the lime juice and 3/4 of the yogurt and pulse briefly on low speed until it begins to clump. See if it forms a doogh, else add a little more yogurt.
Bring together into a flat disk, cling wrap and rest for an hour, or overnight.
Filling
Core, peel and dice the apple into tiny bits.
Toss in a bowl with remaining ingredients. Leave to rest for about 30 minutes for the flavours to marry, or in the fridge overnight.
Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
Divide the dough into 8 or 10. {You will get approx 10 X 3″ circles of dough. Fewer if you do 4″ circles.}
Roll out dough on a floured surface to 1/8″ thickness. Cut out circles about 3″ in diameter and lightly brush the edges with a finger dipped in water.
Put a heaping tablespoon of apple mixture on center of dough circle and fold over, brush the edges with water, pinching ends shut or crimping with a fork.
Place on prepared baking sheet, brush with honey wash, top with a sprig of thyme if you like, gently pressing it into place.
“What I say is that, if a fellow really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow.” A. A. Milne
What’s Cooking ? Curry, I said!
Ben @ What’s Cooking USasked me one day if I’d like to contribute something from my part of the world for his ‘What’s Cooking World’ series. C’mon Ben, I said….wouldn’t I just? Any foodie worth his/her salt jumps to a good opportunity that knocks. I had to put on my thinking cap though, as I had posted most of my favourite lamb curries earlier. Suddenly remembered this one…a lamb curry with the very humble potato. Lamb, curry & potatoes make a delicious dish…the flavours blend beautifully & this is a nice, comforting curry! With 2008 being declared the ‘Year of the Potato’, how good it feels to be sending this off to my dear friend Ben. We’ve shared our ‘yeastophobias‘, celebrated out strengths of baking powders, exchanged notes on chrysanthemums, encouraged each other on DB challenges…this is an extension of our ‘blogaddiction‘!
Soul Curry…
This curry evoked some strange memories for me. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned to an old friend that I was making ‘AlooGosht‘ & wondered whether she had ever heard of it? Both our Dad’s were in the Air Force (hers’ a fighter pilot & mine an engineer), though our paths crossed much later when we joined British Airways in the late ’80’s; funnily enough, she flew & I was ground staff!! How strange when she said YES…& how she still remembered fighting her siblings for the potatoes in the curry! We did that too then…& now I see the kids doing the same. Potato tales?
Curry connections….
It brought something else to mind too. Something which hasn’t cropped up in my mind for long, but which flooded my mind this morning. I remember eating this as a kid & the memory is connected to nightly air raid sirens during the war in 1971, when we used to have ‘black-outs’ & eat in candle-light amidst whispers. There was never a fear of any sort; we just knew the lights had to be out when the sirens went off, & that was accepted as a part of life. Ours not to question why…
I don’t think my kids could ever survive an experience of the sort without fear or a million questions!! Best they enjoy the curry bit like we did!!
I made naans to serve with the curry. Naan is a leavened Indian bread & goes brilliantly with curries. Will post the recipe for the bread later.
Here’s an adaptation of my Mom’s recipe for the curry…
Ingredients:
Lamb – 500gms (shoulder cut/ on the bone)
Potatoes – 4-5 / cut into 6 wedges each
Onions – 4 (the ones we get here are about 3″ big)
Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan / cooker. Fry the potato wedges for 5-7 minutes on full heat (will not get fully cooked). Remove from oil & reserve.
In the same oil, put in the wholegarammasala & fry for a minute till they crackle. Add the sliced onions & fry till golden brown.
Add the lamb & roast till light brown; add the yogurt & roast again till the liquid is gone.
Now add the coriander powder + turmeric powder + paprika, mixing in well, followed by the onion paste + ginger garlic paste + chopped tomatoes. ROAST again till the edges leave oil.
Add about 1/2 a cup of water & cook until lamb is done.
Now add the potatoes, mix well & cook till potatoes are done. This should take just a short while now. Keep an eye to make sure you don’t end up with mashed potatoes!
Add a few green chilies for flavour (deseed them if you want), garnish with fresh coriander & garammasala powder…
