This is my partner Doug's birthday. :D
He has requested
Hatch Green Chile Apple Pie as his festive dessert.
I have thus far constructed the cheddar cheese crust and placed it in the refrigerator to chill. It's an interesting crust that takes a lot of hand-kneading, so I hope that didn't work the gluten to rubber. You have to put in the flour, salt, shredded cheddar, and diced butter then work it until it sticks together, which takes a while. But once it adheres, it actually does ball up pretty well. I am curious how it will turn out, as I quite like cheddar, and may wish to reuse the idea elsewhere. (I don't expect to like the pie itself, but will try a bite. I have a mini-pie of ordinary apple for myself.)
EDIT 1/11/21: My thoughts in progress ...
* The chilled cheddar crust comes out of the fridge as a round brick stuck to the bottom of the bowl. I had to let it warm on the counter for 10 minutes to be at all workable. I believe it would be much easier to pat the crust into the bowl
before chilling it.
* Whether or not the filling is any good, the cheddar crust is delicious. Likely it would work with other fillings. I am also contemplating how to make crackers with it. Since it is already made mostly of fat and some protein, with just enough carbs to hold it together, I'm mulling over whether I could swap in some nut flour or low-carb flour to reduce the carb count further without damaging the flavor or texture.
* I doubt the crust actually needs salt added to it, as cheese is already salty.
* I don't think it really needs the egg yolk wash either. Not only is that another step, trying to brush egg yolk over partially baked crust dragged loose large crumbs.
* The filling called for 5 cups of apples. I bought 5 Granny Smith apples and only needed 3 of them to make up 5 cups. The pie is still way overfull. I suggest the normal amount of 2-3 apples to make a pie, depending on their size.
* The recipe said to slice the apples "thickly." That makes it take forever to bake. Forget that and slice them thinly as you would for a regular apple pie.
* Also I don't mind peels in my apple pie, so I'm disinclined to peel them again. This will save time while adding more fiber and nutrients.
* The hatch green chile contents are not "diced." They are the consistency of chunky applesauce, making the filling quite wet. 0_o
* The streusel topping calls for melted butter. This causes it to turn into dough. I managed to get it onto the pie, but it does not behave as crumble toppings should. This is clearly a solution-caused problem, because some people don't like cutting cold butter into flour. Mix the powder ingredients, put the cold butter in, cut until crumbly. Add the pine nuts. Sprinkle over pie filling.
* As a result of the above observations, I suspect this recipe came from someone who liked hatch green chiles and pie, but was not an experienced dessert designer.
* This is feast food. I started at 1:30 PM, it was 5:30 when I started this message, I had to get up to fuss with the pie again, and it won't be done for at least half an hour.
egg wash, peeling apples
EDIT 1/11/21 after eating:
* The pie was
finally done at 7:30 PM. That is about 6 hours from starting point. As I was going along, I spotted things that I suspected would make it misfire on timing: too much filling, thickly sliced apples, and a low cooking temperature for much of the time. It was after even the longest suggested time before the apples even started to soften. I tented the pie with foil after the first 10 minutes at a higher temperature, because the nuts were browning, but in the end the level of browning came out quite well and didn't burn.
* The flavor is surprisingly good. I didn't think hatch chiles, with their scratchy flavor, would go well with apples; but it works. The other savory flavors of pine nuts and cheddar cheese also work. It's a lot less spicy than I expected, more zesty than hot, so I was able to enjoy a half-slice with vanilla ice cream. I would not mind having this again on some festive occasion.
* If you like apples and hatch green chiles or other hot foods, you will probably love this pie.
* If you want it hotter, get the Medium chiles that the recipe calls for, or Hot, not the Mild ones mistakenly sent to us. But it's a lucky mistake in my case; I don't think I would've wanted to eat anything hotter than this. Another level of heat could be obtained by adding more chiles (there was extra left over), hatch powder, or making the pie with habañero or Carolina reaper (two volcanic but fruity types) peppers instead.
* If you want it cooler, consider ginger instead of peppers. Raw diced ginger root can be quite hot. You could also just reduce the amount of chiles. They don't taste as strong as they smell when you open the can.
* That cheddar crust is tasty. I want to play with it more. It would be a fiddly and tedious way to make a modest amount of crackers, but I believe that I could make a most excellent batch of crackers using this for inspiration, and I haven't found a very good home cracker recipe (not counting ones that are actually other pie crusts).
* I like the crumble topping, although it would probably turn out better if made with unmelted butter. It did cook up just fine, but was pesky to apply. Also it had no spice in it. I would probably add powdered ginger. I will play with this in the future too.
* I thought of many ways to make the recipe easier and faster, which should have little if any effect on flavor; and a few ideas for improving it. While this is never going to be a weeknight pie, I can probably streamline it considerably. I'm really glad I made this.
EDIT 1/12/20: Doug notes that reheating the pie changes the heat and dispersal of the chiles, leaving more bites without heat. He suggests using the whole can instead of the measured amount.
Later I will be making bison filling to go with blue corn tortillas. :D
* The bison also turned out well. \o/
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