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Apple Goat Cheese Pie with Maple Caramel

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So I seem to have deviated from my original plan to make a tart, but I hope the choices I made in the presentation of this pie come across as interesting! I just though the idea of maple syrup caramel and goat cheese sounded too delicious to be missed out on. The pie was challenging to make especially because it called for special pastry that used cream as the liquid in the pastry rather than water (which required 3 hours in the fridge rather than just 1 before rolling it out…), the caramel was challenging in both preparation and maintenance before it could be put in the crust (caramel that was too hot would melt the pastry, but caramel that was too hard wouldn’t pour…), and finally tackling the presentation aspect itself required quick precision to cut the pastry before it got too warm. I decided that rather than using the standard single, unified piece of circular pastry for the top of the pie I would cut the pastry up and make a sort of pastry mosaic for the top crust. This turned out to be both an aesthetic and functional decision in that the mosaic of concentric layered circles of pastry was both pretty and provided little gaps to serve as steam vents in this very bubbly pie. Before serving it I’m going to throw some granulated sugar on top and warm it. Then I’ll add some confectioners sugar.
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Making Caramel! Just cooked maple syrup and sugar!!!

Making Caramel! Just cooked maple syrup and sugar!!!

Preparing the Cranberry Apple Crumb Pie

Ali skillfully slicing apples peeled by Conor for our Apple, Cranberry, Crumb Pie

Ali skillfully slicing apples peeled by Conor for our Apple, Cranberry, Crumb Pie

 

IMG_1361 IMG_1362 IMG_1364This pie was our first foray into making our own pastry, and honestly as I sit here waiting for my pie to come out of the oven I have no idea how well that went. The pie smells pretty good, which I think is a pretty good sign. Rather than doing a double crust we decided to use a crumb top rather than a second pastry crust on top. The recipe for our pie asked for this type of topping, but we decided to tweak the recipe by using brown sugar and oats along with loads of butter. The filling looks very good as the cranberries seem to have exploded and are bubbling red juices up through the crumb top.

I have now pulled the pie out of the oven and it has begun to cool. The cranberry juices are still bubbling and it looks delicious! The only problem I’m seeing is that since the recipe called for cooking the bottom crust with the filling before the crumb top was added. I decided to put the silicon crust edge protector things once I added the crumb and this led to the edges of the pastry becoming too dark. Next time I will put the protectors on the pie at the beginning. Anyway I think the pie is going to be delicious because the pie is a pie and pie is always good.

–Conor’