I’m suddenly back with a new recipe review, this time from Tasting History by Max Miller, youtube influencer. I didn’t have the historical ingredients for many of the recipes and wasn’t that fond of cheese to make the rest I could find, but I did have this apple tart pie bookmarked and began slowly buying apples for it. Then when my friends wanted a slightly healthier fruitier dessert for dinner, I thought this was a perfect chance to make this recipe. Only… I didn’t have enough apples to fill the pie in the end so I had to use two pluots (plum apricot hybrids) in the fridge, but they tasted similar okay? Look at the cute little leaves I made from the cutout pastry.
Ingredients Summary – all available at a basic grocery store
- filling: apples (and pluots), butter, sugar, cinnamon, egg yolks, ground ginger, I also added a few bits of nutmeg.
- crust: I used storebought Pillsbury dough because I didn’t have a mixer or time or space to make my own and I probably never will tbh, egg white for wash
Steps Summary – very easy
Prepare or defrost dough. Peel/core apples, cut into slices and fry in butter. Let cool, then slice into pieces. Whisk egg yolks and add apples. Melt butter and combine with sugar and spices and pour that over the apples. Add the filling into the pie crust, then top with second crust, then brush with an egg wash. Bake until bubbly.
Taste Summary – tastes amazing but I didn’t like the soggy bottom pie crust or the egg appearance of the filling
- Taste – I used a mix of Fuji and Envy apples, as well as a rosy pink pluot that had the same sweet/tart floral taste and firm texture as the apples. The butter and spices were complimentary, not overpowering but very flavorful. I ended up taking out some apple pieces that didn’t look perfect and replaced them with even more pluot.
- Texture – The egginess of the filling was different from the usual gelatinous pectin/cornstarch filling I’m used to, it was more opaque and saucy like strudel filling, and I even saw bits of curdled egg, which may be from the apples being too warm when mixed together or my oven blasting the eggs with nuclear gamma rays or both. This was because I was in a hurry since it was after midnight when I started and peeling took forever. Also the bottom crust was soggy because the filling looked too juicy so I even left some liquid behind, but I think most fruit pie crusts get a little soggy the next day anyway. If I made my own crust, I could have beefed it up a little, but then it wouldn’t cook before it burned…
Convenience Summary
This pie took almost 3 hours to make even though I left out making my own crust to save time since I started so late. Making my own crust would have taken well over 3 hours. It took a lot of time to peel/core/chop the apples since you need at least 6 to fill a 9 inch pie dish. Peeling stone fruits are an even more arduous process but that was all on me not counting my apples carefully before I went to the grocery store. Then I had to wait for the fruit to cool after frying and I couldn’t do anything else in the meantime. Then I had to deal with the whole pie crust debacle, since it took even more time to crimp the edges and vent the top crust, then put foil to protect the crust edges from burning after the first 15 minutes. Then I had to wait for the broiling hot baked pie to cool before I could cover it! Too much waiting!
However, the pie was still very hearty and yummy and even the storebought crust wasn’t bad. I quite like apple pie so I was eager to taste a pie with both apples and pluots. Note that this recipe is different than the American pie Max Miller made on his channel, this is a German pie/tart recipe. I would have liked to watch this recipe on youtube to see where I might have messed up. Anyway, pastries and pies and desserts in general are a labor of love. This is why my mom never made desserts and why I bake banana bread (or quick breads) now lol.