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broodings from the burrow

March 14, 2010


3.14…
posted by soe 11:15 pm

Hey, folks! I hope you celebrated all things round today by eating some pie. (For those outside the know, pi is 3.14… and today was March 14th, so those people fond of dessert celebrate our very own holiday with crust and filling.)

Friday night I announced my intention of marking the day by making hand pies, which are essentially the Southern version of pasties, turnovers, or sweet empanadas. Rudi was intrigued, particularly since he shares my love of the now (mostly) defunct McDonald’s deep-fried apple pie.

Because I’m seemingly incapable of starting desserts early in the day and to recover from frustrating news from Utah, I sprang into action with this recipe from Confabulation in the Kitchen around 7 tonight. Mind you, we hadn’t eaten dinner yet, nor even started to prepare it.

But I peeled, cored, and cooked up some apples and then made a simple dough. Lacking round cookie cutters, I just ripped dough around our cereal bowls and managed to make six reasonably sized hand pies and one large, overstuffed one to finish up my fixings.

Raw Hand Pies

After a lovely pasta dinner and an episode of Buffy, Rudi and I headed back to the kitchen to begin the process of frying the pies.

Turning Turnovers

Mind you, we hadn’t washed the dinner dishes or the dishes from the prep work, so space was at a premium. I settled on putting the plate with the uncooked pies into the colander and took the lid off the stock pot so I could balance the plate of finished pies on top. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked.

Cooking

While Rudi supervised my use of hot cooking oil (thank goodness we have an electric stove…) and made some cinnamon sugar to sprinkle on top, I turned sizzling pies and watched them turn golden brown.

Sort of Shallow Frying

And, then, the moment of truth…

I should have suspected they were pretty good as Rudi’s first pie was gone before I’d even sat down…

My Pi Day Pie

No McDonald’s retro treat, but still something quite delicious. New England, I highly recommend stealing this Southern treat posthaste!

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