A Future Without Pie (and Spiced Crust)

Think of your favorite pie. Go. Any pie at all. Blueberry, apple, peach. It doesn’t matter.

Now think of that pie being cruelly snatched away from you. Just, snatched right out of the air. Maybe it got sucked into a black hole. It doesn’t matter. Oh, wait. It does matter.

Because your pie is no longer in existence. You may be thinking, “Oh well, I was planning on going on a diet anyway,” or maybe even, “That’s cool, I don’t even like pie all that much anyway.” But really, nobody really knows how much a pie-less lifestyle could affect human society.

Women will no feel no desire at all to spend their time cooking food, and will resort to watching day-long reruns of old TV shows and movies. Why? Well, if you think back to the cartoons you used to watch as a kid, every woman in the kitchen would at some point bake a magnificent pie, then place it on the windowsill. This is something that little children look at, and realize that this is a woman who is basically perfect. Sexist? Maybe a little, but let’s be honest, there has never been a time where a woman doesn’t want to dress up as a young Betty White from The Golden Girls, whilst wearing a cute apron and whisking a fresh apple pie out of the oven.

This idea of perfection is even better if the pie actually looks good. You know the type… three even slits in the perfectly crusty dough, and the inside is so perfectly red or green or whatever color, that you don’t even want to eat it.

And the other great thing is that pie is so versatile. You can pretty much turn pie into anything you want. To the point where it may not even look like a pie anymore. A future without such perfect little pastries baked in adorable little pans? It’s just not possible. Simple as that. That’s why I made these little pies. However, I didn’t use a traditional pie crust… I used puff pastry dough, and spiced it. It keeps the apples (or other fruit for that matter) fresher, and makes the actual dough taste even better. Enjoy!

Apple Pie With Spiced Crust
Original Nerd With Taste Recipe

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup butter
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar
4 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
3 Tbs. butter, melted
3-4 apples, peeled

Directions:
1) Stir the flour and salt in a bowl.
2) Chop the softened butter into cubes and place in the bowl of flour. Stir the cubes around until they are coated in flour.
3) Slowly add the cold water to the bowl, stirring to combine using a spatula if too thick.
4) Put the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes.
5) Place the dough on a floured work surface. Roll the dough out so that it’s long, and then fold the dough lengthwise into thirds. Then fold the dough in half width-wise. Then, roll the dough out to a ‘normal’ size. Repeat this four times.
6) Melt the butter, and in a separate bowl combine the sugar and spices.
7) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
8) Roll out the dough to the ‘normal’ size again, then brush the dough with butter and sprinkle with plenty of the sugar and spice mixture evenly across the dough. Then, fold in half lengthwise and brush and sprinkle again. Repeat this one last time, and then roll out the dough once more.
9) If the dough looks like there isn’t enough spice in it, then repeat step 8 again. Roll out the dough and the gently fit it into your pie pan. Puff pastry dough is quite doughy, and if you feel it’s too greasy, place it in the fridge for a while.
10) Cut the apples (or other fruit for that matter) and put them in the pie dish.
11) Put the pie in the oven for 20 minutes, or until crust looks golden.

Enjoy the pie with caramel, yogurt or fresh fruit. Whatever floats your boat.

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