So I’m plugging away at Cookie Madness, but I couldn’t help but make one last pie in these pre-Thanksgiving days. This one uses heirloom apples called Baldwins that I got at Russell Orchards last weekend. Very nice apples; firm and not too tart. Loving my lattice work too. The rim was a little messy so I used a leaf cookie cutter to pretty it up a little bit.
As y’all know, every year for Thanksgiving, I make a variation on cranberry sauce, and this year is no different. This year’s variation is a Cranberry Blackberry Portwine (with a touch of nutmeg) Sauce and it is absolutely delicious. Would go super well with the usual poultry (also duck!) but also with a steak/beef. Very warm and enticing.
And now for something a little different …. Have you ever eaten roses? Yes, as in the flower that one gives on Valentine’s Day? The flowers turn to fruit (rosehips) which are edible. I commonly know rosehips from tea, but recently while I was in Germany, I found rosehip jam, and of course was curious. It’s a floral flavor for sure, though I am not sure I could identify the taste as ‘roses’. At any rate, I decided to make some of my crumble shortbread bars with the jam and some almonds and they turned out quite nice. I could see them being eaten with tea or coffee in the afternoon.
Often people send me viral photos of cool looking bread design or fancy pie crusts. I love this but one of the things that you often see is the pre-baked pies, but never the end result. Like, what does it look like once You’ve baked it? Is the still as pretty? Or does it all bake together? I decided to give this style of pie — it’s really just a boring old double-crust apple pie, but with the fancy swoosh top crust — a go, and at least with this one, the pattern turned out pretty neat. Pleased with the result.