Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Dulce de Leche Apple Pie & Dulce de Leche Instructions



The slice above isn’t the first slice of pie. It’s the second. I couldn’t help myself. I thought perhaps the piece would look better broken up a bit. Then I thought maybe it needed a bite out of it for composition, no maybe three. Whoops too many bites. Oh gosh, can’t let the crust go to waste. Instead it went to waist!

I don’t know how it happened, but all of a sudden I caught myself licking that little plate clean while Rocky the Hippopotamus (my dog) stared at me in disbelief. I'd inhaled that piece of pie so quickly and didn’t share a single taste with him!

It’s been less than 24 hours and this pie is only a sliver of its former self. Thankfully I had a little help and didn’t eat it all by myself. Just most of it. Yikes!

I think I’ll go ride my bike for awhile today.


Dulce de Leche
First, if you don’t want to purchase dulce de leche you’ll need to make your own.

Don’t be afraid to boil cans of sweetened condensed milk. As long as they're covered by a couple inches of water at all times you’ll be safe. Think of it as canning you didn’t have to go to all the trouble of harvesting for.

You’ll need:
Sweetened condensed milk in cans (You can do several at a time and store extras in your cupboard)
1 Big deep pot
A tea kettle
Two timers

Remove the labels. Place the cans in the pot and cover cans completely with water at least two inches above the top of the cans. Bring the water to a boil. After it starts to boil set two timers; one for 4 hours and the other for thirty minutes. Turn down the heat if the boil becomes overly vigorous.

Meanwhile fill the tea kettle with water and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and leave on the burner. After the 30 minute timer is up refill the water that has evaporated from the pot with the water from the tea kettle. Turn the timer on for 30 more minutes and repeat until the 4 hours is up. You must keep the water filled! Exploding cans are not good!

Once 4 hours is up, turn the heat off from under the pot and let the cans cool completely in the pot of water for a couple hours. Once cool, remove the cans and rinse them off under the sink and dry them with a towel.

That’s it. Now you can open the cans and enjoy the world’s easiest caramel type sauce.

Refrigerate any leftovers in a separate container.

Dulce de Leche Apple Pie
Double crust for 9” pie (I purchased mine as usual)
Egg white for brushing dough
5 cups peeled and sliced mixed apples
¼ cup dulce de leche
2 Tablespoons apple cider
½ cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Pinch of salt
1 Tablespoon of butter for dotting pie
9” Pyrex pie dish, not the 9 1/2" deep dish

1. Place the oven rack on the lower 3rd of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees.

2. Mix together sugars, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Make sure the cornstarch is well mixed in so you don’t get cornstarch lumps in your pie.

3. In a large bowl toss together the apples, then toss with dulce de leche, apple cider, and vanilla extract. Add the dry mixture and toss to combine. Set aside.

4. Between wax paper gently roll out the pie dough and stretch it about another inch or more for the bottom piece, and roll the top piece gently to even out the dough.

5. Line a 9” Pyrex pie dish with the bottom crust, brush with the egg white. Add the filling and spread out evenly. Dot the mixture with little bits of butter here and there.

6. Cover with the top crust. Press the top dough into the bottom piece gently to stick together. Tuck the top edges into the pie dish leaving a little to crimp at the top. Flute the edges.

7. Poke a few holes in the crust for venting or cut out decorations.

8. Bake for 30 minutes. Then turn the temperature to 375 degrees, cover crust edges with a pie shield, and bake for another 30 minutes or until crust is golden on the bottom and no longer wet and raw looking.

9. Remove the pie from the oven and set on a cooling rack for several hours to set up the filling.

Pie Recipe by Laura Flowers


38 comments:

Spryte said...

This looks soooo amazing!!!

Sherri Murphy said...

I'm surprised there was any left for the photo!

Susan from Food Blogga said...

Swoon-worthy. Completely swoon-worthy.

Xiaolu said...

Dulce de Leche is like my favorite thing ever. I can't wait to try adding it to apple pie!

Ciao Chow Linda said...

You make me long for an apple pie - but one like yours, not the ordinary kind.

Jennifer said...

What a GREAT pie!! I love that you put dulce de leche in it!

Coleens Recipes said...

I've never even heard of Dulce de Leche let alone how to make it. You are amazing. Your description of the "disappearance) of that first piece of pie was hilarious.

Tiffiny Felix said...

Gracious! I'm afraid to try this...my husband might like it better than my apple pie! ;)

softhef said...

I'm afraid my husband might like it better than me!

Pink Little Cake said...

Yummy!! I love dulce de Leche. I do make my own. I eat it with white bread. Is that weird?

Michelle said...

I love to eat dulce de leche with white bread, too. It's an amazing snack. :)

Thanks for the great recipe, Laura. I've always been afraid to boil cans like that, but I'm going to give it a try now. Hopefully without blowing up the kitchen!!

Ms Whit said...

Your apple pie looks so good. I made apple bread yesterday, but I think I will make your pie recipe today. Have a wonderful day.

test it comm said...

Adding dulce de leche to an apple pie is such a great idea!

Pity said...

dulce de leche and apple, wow! this sounds like heaven, ery well done! your blog is a lovely site, i will be coming back, for sure!

cheers from london,

pity

Lisa said...

Oh my goodness. I have a favorite apple pie recipe to which I've been faithful for several many years. But this one? Wow! I think I'm about to cheat!!! Love it.

Patricia @ ButterYum said...

Ahhhh - I'm so afraid to cook the sweetened condensed milk, but man, your pie sounds fab!

Anonymous said...

Ha! the exact same thing happened to me when I made my blueberry and almond pie. I ate maybe 4 slices. Took maybe 1 picture. And never posted anything. The proof was in my stomach.

Chef Fresco said...

I would've had two of those too!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Laura,

I made the Dulce De Leche. I would add to the recipe that you'll want to ventilate well or everything in your house will be covered with a thin layer of persperation. lol

it was pretty easy as long as you keep an eye on it and you don't mind spending the time... I don't think I'll ever buy caramel sauce again!!!

P.S. - The pie is in the oven as I'm typing this. CAN'T WAIT!!!

The Cooking Photographer said...

Hi TTAGG,

I was out of town and just got your comment. I hope the pie was good! It always makes me nervous when someone makes something I just created. :)

Laura

The Cooking Photographer said...

Hi Everyone!

Thank-you for the comments!

RecipeGirl said...

I adapted your recipe and won first prize in our community's pie contest! Thanks for a fantastic idea!!

The Cooking Photographer said...

Recipe Girl I am so happy for you!!!!! Thank-you for telling me!

Laura

Anonymous said...

Hi Laura,
I really like your artistic approach towards food and love your photography work. I will definitely visit again. cheers!

The Cooking Photographer said...

Thank-you frockandfork.

Ginger said...

Well, the pictures are the same since I have been gone, AWESOME and the pie is amazing!! Some things never change!! Have a great week Laura.

Spryte said...

I made the dulce de leche yesterday... mine came out quite thick. Is is supposed to be that way? It tasted amazing!! I imagine heated it will thin out a bit.

I'll be making the pie tonight!

I'll definitely let you know how it turns out.

I have a feeling it will be a HUGE hit at my house!

The Cooking Photographer said...

Hi Spryte,

It will be thick, but you can warm it up in the microwave for a few seconds to make it thinner. Don't zap it too long though or it will boil over in a flash.

I hope you like the pie. If your apples are especially tart feel free to add up to 1/2 cup of granulated sugar. I had a bunch of mixed sweet and tart apples to use up when I made that one.

Let me know how it goes please!

Laura

gaga said...

What a perfect and creative pie! The flavors are perfect for each other.

CD said...

This looks wonderful!Very beautiful photo!I want to make this I am scared to attempt the homemade Dulce de Leche! :o ...But it doesn't scare me to can....go figure..

Spryte said...

This pie was AWESOME!!

Everyone loved it! I'll definitely be making it again!

There's a little something for you over here....

http://sprytesplace.blogspot.com/2009/10/dulce-de-leche-apple-pie.html

The Cooking Photographer said...

Spryte thank-you for telling me!! I am really happy it turned out well. Yay!

Laura

Veronica said...

I unexpectedly had the day off and knew immediately what I'd be doing with my free time. Yup, making this pie. It's been taunting me all day and finally, finally, we dug into it after dinner. We both agree it's the best apple pie we've had so far, even better than the one I thought would be the only apple pie I ever made for the rest of my life. I don't detect the dulce de leche but the whole pie overall is excellent.

The Cooking Photographer said...

Wow. Thanks Veronica for letting me know. I consider you the pie goddess, so that is a huge compliment.

Laura

Memória said...

I made small pie tarts following this recipe and the pie crust on recipe rhapsody. This pie was fantastic. Next time, I'll try it with dulce de leche added to it. But even without it, the pie was awesome. Thanks!

Veronica M. said...

LOL--I'm back again to report that this pie was a huge success at a dinner party last week. I drizzled dulce de leche over the top, which made it even prettier and impressive. People were groaning and rolling their eyes in ecstasy so I hope you'll forgive you for not giving you any credit--I took it all! :)

The Cooking Photographer said...

Lol omgosh V.! You make me laugh. I have no problem with you taking all the credit. Just pay me in Oreo truffles!

Laura

Related Posts with Thumbnails