Baking | Wholewheat Apple Walnut Cheddar Thyme Hand Pies … it’s Pi{e} Day after all #wholegrain #together #healthy #pie

“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:

1. Wholewheat Short Crust Pastry
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Bring together into a flat disk, cling wrap and rest for an hour, or overnight.
5. Filling
6. Core, peel and dice the apple into tiny bits.
7. Toss in a bowl with remaining ingredients. Leave to rest for about 30 minutes for the flavours to marry, or in the fridge overnight.
   
8. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
9. Divide the dough into 8 or 10. {You will get approx 10 X 3″ circles of dough. Fewer if you do 4″ circles.}
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. Place on prepared baking sheet, brush with honey wash, top with a sprig of thyme if you like, gently pressing it into place.
13. Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown.

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