Health & Fitness
Caloric Offsets
To celebrate a season-opening "power walk" on the Radnor Trail, I opened a bottle of champagne and made a couple of apple desserts with my lard crust. I'm telling myself it was a caloric offset.
I didn’t spend a lot of time on the Radnor Trail this winter, but as the weather has warmed, it’s been good to restart my modest cardio regimen: a spirited two-mile walk from Radnor-Chester Road to the Wayne Post Office and back. It doesn’t seem to be trimming any inches off the waistline, but that’s because I love food and still imagine my metabolism to be the same as when I was twenty-five years younger.
It’s not.
Anyway, I headed out on the Trail late Saturday afternoon, having skipped lunch, and came back hungry and thirsty. Some water and an apple would have been a great choice, but feeling a bit self-indulgent, I decided instead to make a couple of individual deep dish apple pies and open a bottle of champagne. Hey, it was almost five o’clock, so hold the judgmental remarks!
I didn’t bother looking for a recipe for what I decided to call my “pie-lettes.” The crust couldn’t have been easier: 1/3C lard cut into a cup of unbleached flour with a solid pinch of salt and enough ice water added incrementally until the dough held together. Then chilled for 15 minutes and rolled out, dusting with only as much flour as necessary to keep it from sticking.
I opted for a 50/50 blend of the apples I had on hand, Granny Smith and Braeburn. They’re both pleasingly crisp and together offer a nice balance of tart and sweet. I dredged the thin slices in the same mixture of sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt that I use when I’m making a full-sized pie, filled two of my French onion soup crocks, added a couple of pieces of unsalted butter on top, and tucked the pre-cut crust into place. As with any fruit pie, I sliced some vents to allow for juice overflow.
The only thing I misjudged was the baking time. I had preheated the oven to 450˚ and decided on 30 minutes, which was probably 8-10 minutes too long. The crust was perfect, but the apples had cooked down to almost mushiness, which didn’t affect the taste, but did reduce the volume considerably.
Whatever disappointment I might have experienced was blunted by the bottle of Saint-Hilaire Brut which accompanied the preparation and consumption of dinner. And yes, I did eat both desserts. Apples are good for you, right?
