Cooking Class: Hard Cider

I had the recent pleasure of attending a class at Urban Farm & Feed / Wasatch Front Farmers Market on how to make hard cider at home.  The basics are a fermenting kit, a juicer, and a bunch of apples.  It's pretty darn neat!  Keep an eye on their Facebook page for more upcoming classes.  The fermenting kit can be used for all sorts of other things too, like beer and fruit wine.  This makes me look longingly at the still-dormant tiny grape vines and fruit trees and dream of summer.
Finding local cooking classes can be super fun - it's a good way to try something new, meet interesting people, and ask questions you've always wondered about (such as exactly how to get bottle caps on bottles).  Think about what kind of class you like and learn best at and start looking for them.  There are hands-on classes, like this one, or classes where the students watch the chef and take notes.  Some are for specific recipes, some are for techniques.  Many offer samples of the recipes that were cooked or even include a take-home of the product being made.  The lucky students here went home with a bucket of future hard cider to enjoy and the equipment to make plenty more. 

Here are some shots of the cider making!


First, the stars of our show, apples. 
















To ferment things, you need a fermenting kit.  Sterilize everything! 












Then, slice a bunch of apples.  Maybe some extra for eating.  They are pretty tasty. 













Run them through a juicer.  I might be the only person in the country who's never used one (at least as far as I can tell from Pinterest) and they totally fascinate me.  They separate the juice from the pulp and seeds.  Apparently chickens love pulp and seeds.   










Then it's off to the fermentation bucket with special yeast monsters and a thingamawhatsit to allow gas to escape.  When the monsters are done, the right yeast is added.

This bottle held cider for the next photo, and can now be washed, sterilized, and re-used for more cider!







Results! Okay it wasn't *quite* that fast, as the cider does need many weeks to ferment.  Our awesome teacher Paige had made some beforehand that was ready to pop open for the class.  Thanks Paige, see you for the next class! 

Apple Custard Pie with Walnut Crust

Sometimes unexpected things happen in the kitchen.  Plans go awry.  I don't always double check my ingredients or recipe timing, and this can lead to happy things like making this pie.  My original plan was to make a cinnamon apple cheesecake for a pie contest.  Partway through this I noticed the instruction line about chilling overnight... oops.  Well, I signed up for making a pie, and a pie I shall make. Apples are the fruit of the season, and I like to shake things up a bit from the traditional apple pie.  

Apple Custard Pie with Walnut Crust and Cinnamon Glaze

Of course things can get a little too crazy in the kitchen for me when I try to bake two things at once, especially when the recipes are similar... my husband came to the rescue to help me out and so far so good with the two pies.  Might as well finish the second one too, right?  (Now we have cheesecake for breakfast mmmmm)  The original recipe didn't make enough glaze to cover the apples so I bumped up the ingredients there to make what I put on this pie.  People seemed disappointed that it isn't caramel, but the cinnamon-cider glaze is so good and I think caramel would overwhelm the delicate custard.  The glaze cooks up very quickly so do not take your eyes off of it while the heat is on.  Okay I did mine on medium not low... what can I say, it was one of those days. 

Local ingredients of the day:
Cameo apples from the Urban Farm & Feed store
Apple cider from Farnsworth Family Farms
Eggs from Clifford Family Farm

Also thanks to the Wasatch Cooperative Market and Salt Lake Culinary Center for hosting the pie contest for inspiration!

No, I didn't win, but I had a lot of fun and was very pleased with how this came out.  I've always wanted to be good enough at baking to be able to enter a contest and feel good about it! 


Apple Custard Pie with Walnut Crust
Pie adapted from Eagle Brand (Sweetened Condensed Milk).

CRUST
1 1/2 cups ground walnuts
3 tablespoons butter 
2 tablespoons white sugar

In a medium mixing bowl, combine all ingredients. Press the nut mixture firmly into bottom and sides of a 9 inch pie plate. 

Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for about 10 minutes, or until the edge is golden brown. Cool.

PIE INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups sour cream 
1 (14 ounce) can Sweetened Condensed Milk 
1/4 cup apple cider
1 large egg 
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
3-4 medium apples, cored, pared and thinly sliced 
2 tablespoons butter

Apple Cinnamon Glaze:  
1/2 cup apple cider
4 teaspoons cornstarch 
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS
1.  In small bowl, beat sour cream, sweetened condensed milk, apple juice, egg, vanilla and cinnamon until smooth. Pour into prepared pie crust. Bake 30 minutes or until set. Cool.

2.  Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook apples in butter until tender yet crisp. Arrange the prettiest slices on top of pie.  Eat the other slices. 

3.  Combine apple juice, cornstarch and cinnamon in small saucepan. Over low heat, cook and stir until boiling. Boil for 1 minute. Keep a very close eye on this, it can burn easily. 

4.  Drizzle over cooked apples. Serve warm or chilled. 

Homemade Apple Cider Vinegar... or not

I am participating in the October Unprocessed 2013 Challenge, which means no unprocessed food for the month.  More details are on the Eating Rules website if you'd like to learn about it and/or join me!

Homemade Apple Cider Vinegar: Day 1

This coincided with my discovery of a recipe to make apple cider, and a quick Google search confirmed that lots of people make their own.  Part of the October Challenge is only using ingredients that a home cook could reasonably make (or grow etc) and I love learning about how to make common things that a lot of people don't think about where they come from other than the grocery store.

I never thought that my cooking education would involve trying to make something get moldy, on purpose, but here we are.  I remember as a kid when it came time to clean out the fridge running into moldy things and we all joked that it was okay because it was a science experiment.  Now it really is one!  I don't know whether I will be able to bring myself to try the vinegar or not once it's done... or to ever want to eat anything with vinegar in it again... but I do think it's important to see where our food comes from and eat with that complete knowledge.

This is apple season here in Utah and I'm pretty excited that vinegar uses the leftover peels from coring and peeling apples.  A weekend canning project gave me a nice big pile of peels to get started.  The whole process takes a couple of months. 

UPDATE Six weeks later:  I think it's too cold in our house to make vinegar.  The apples are still hardly molding at all.  The peels have shrunk to about half the volume and were bubbly for a while, but the fermentation seems to have completely stopped at this point.  On the plus side it doesn't have a smell like I thought it would after the first few days.  Next year I will try this earlier in the summer when it's still nice and hot outside with longer days of sunshine. 


Step One
Peel your apples and make a big pile of the scraps.  Leave them exposed to the air so they turn brown.  The is the beginning of the fermentation process.

Step Two
Find a large glass jar to make your vinegar in.  Plastic works too; do not use metal!  Mine is in a sun-tea jar that was about to go into winter storage.  Pile up the brown scraps in the jar, cover with water, and put a loose paper towel or thin cloth over the top.  I rubber-banded mine on so no little flies would find it but if you can leave it just gently sitting on top, even better.  That lets more oxygen in. 

Now, put the jar in a warm draft-free place and leave it alone.  I suggest a place where you won't mind the smell; after only a few days I am already wondering how bad that will get but I'm pretty motivated to do food experiments at least once!

Sweet & Salty Apple Shortbread

This is a simple and craving-satisfying dessert to enjoy those late-season apples in something a little less usual.   Apple pie is great and all, but these little treats can be tucked into a lunch bag, purse, or briefcase (um, use a ziploc baggie or something...) for a happy smile when you need a pick me up. 

The recipe for Salty Apple Shortbread is from Vanilla Sugar Blog (reprinted with permission) and is just too pretty not to try.  Utah apples are plentiful and shortbread is one of my favorite desserts.  These are absolutely wonderful in the morning with coffee. Bonus: these are fast and easy enough to make on a weekday evening! 

The most important bit of pre-planning here is bringing the butter to room temperature.  Salted butter does just fine on the counter at normal house temperatures, just pop a couple of sticks onto a plate and leave them out overnight. Oh, and use real butter.  Your recipe will thank you. 

This needs approximately one large apple; maybe two if they are small.  Sprinkle lemon juice over the chopped apples to keep them from turning brown.  My first batch turned out too moist, I think because the apples were too juicy, so I adjusted the recipe for the second batch.  Instead of mixing the sea salt in with the flour and baking powder, I sprinkled it over the apples and let them sit for a half hour so the salt pulled out some of the moisture, then squeezed out the juice and used the drier apple bits.  It's a method I learned with zucchini.  The second batch turned out with that perfect melt-in-your-mouth shortbread texture I was hoping for!  Lesson learned, don't skip that step. 

The rest of the recipe is quick to put together, just a couple of mixing bowls and all the usual suspects for baking.  I tried almond extract in one variation and that is delicious too, but did overpower the delicate apples, so I suggest sticking with vanilla.

I used a 9x13 pan to keep a more traditional shortbread style of thin flat bars, but another option is to use a smaller pan and cook them a little longer.  Mine took longer to cook anyway, about 20 minutes total before reaching that pretty golden-brown stage.  I sifted powdered sugar over the second batch instead of glazing.  Both are delicious! 

A few photos from the making:

Crumbly shortbread texture just before pressing dough into the pan

Ready to go into the oven!  Press it down tightly so it holds its form after baking.

Shortbread with glaze, cooled and removed from the pan.  Parchment paper makes everything easy. 

Sweet & Salty Apple Shortbread

INGREDIENTS
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups peeled chopped or grated apples (1/2" to 1/4") (choose a kind that is sweet and firm)
fresh lemon juice for the apples (optional)
sea salt for the top (optional but highly recommended!)
powdered sugar for the top (optional)
*Special: Parchment paper - this is to help lift them out when done baking - note that this is NOT wax paper.

For the glaze (optional):
2 Tbsp half & half (or whole milk)
2 Tbsp butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar (sifted to avoid lumps)
1/4 tsp cinnamon


DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 375 F with the rack at the middle level.  Line a 9x13 inch pan with baking parchment and grease lightly.
2. Mix the flour and baking powder, set aside.
3. Cream the butter, brown sugar, and vanilla extract.
4. Blend in the flour mixture, until just combined, no overmixing. Add in the chopped apples and mix again. This mixture is very crumbly. Dump mixture into pan and use your fingers to press the dough evenly into the pan. Sprinkle a bit of sea salt on the top of the dough if you're using it.
5. Bake 6 minutes, rotate the pan, and bake 7-12 minutes more or until the edges are golden brown.
6. Let cool completely before applying glaze. You’ll know when it’s done when the center is almost firm and edges are golden brown.
7. For the glaze, put all the ingredients in a small saucepan on medium heat.
8. Whisk until smooth and barely bubbly. Drizzle the glaze over the bars. You can drizzle or coat the entire top.
9. Cool until the pan is just warm to the touch and cut into bars with a sharp knife.
10. Makes about 20 bars, depending on how big/small you cut them.

Preserving: Freezer Apple Pie Filling

Tis the season to preserve the last of the local apples!  It's also time to start thinking about the upcoming holidays, guests visiting, parties and potlucks.  I love this season!  Always up for trying something new, I wanted to know if it's possible to make apple pie filling and freeze it... and it sure is!  I have a nifty apple peeler/corer/slicer contraption that makes preparing the apples a snap (only about $20 on Amazon if you don't have one yet, they are amazing!).

Use some cheap aluminum pie plates for this, the ones that are a little smaller than a regular pie size, and line them with aluminum foil for easy filling removal.

The amount of water in this recipe is variable depending on how juicy your apples are and whether you want extra "apple syrup" to put over pancakes or waffles or ice cream... or to eat with a spoon... we made some into pie-flavored ice cream!   For no extra syrup, about half to two-thirds of the ten cups of water will probably work fine, and cut the corn starch down proportionally. 13 small apples makes enough for 3 pies. 

Freezer apple pie filling, ready for pies!

Freezer Apple Pie Filling

INGREDIENTS
18 cups thinly sliced apples
3 tablespoons lemon juice (optional, to prevent browning)
4 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 to 1 cup cornstarch
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
5 to 10 cups water

DIRECTIONS
1. Prepare pie tins: line aluminum pie tins with foil. (13 small apples makes 3 pies)
2. In a large bowl, toss apples with lemon juice and set aside. Pour water into a large pot over medium heat. Combine sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg. Add to water, stir well, and bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
3. Add apples and return to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until apples are tender, about 6 to 8 minutes. Cool for 30 minutes.
4. Ladle into prepared pie tins. Cool at room temperature no longer than 1 1/2 hours.
5. Freeze, then transfer frozen discs out of pie plates into zip-lock freezer bags. Can be stored for up to 12 months.

MAKING PIE
Baking the frozen pie filling is a lot like baking a pie from the store except you can proudly announce that it was homemade.  I like the frozen pre-shaped pie crusts, and the frozen filling discs fit perfectly inside!  I use a crumbly oat topping instead of a top crust.  Bake in a 350 oven for 45 minutes and test for done-ness.  This made the crust a little soggy so I might play with the time and temp a little, but the apples were completely thawed and cooked through and it's always nice to have the house smell like apple pie.  Only thing better is having the house smell like apple pie and hot buttered rum.