sunbeams and sugardrops

So I like to bake…but I also find it extremely daunting. Like for example my first ever, proper, new-york style baked cheesecake which I made last year…it needed to bake in a water bath, in a spring-form pan. Every thing I read about it scared me with visions of a soggy crust. And then the first ever chicken I cooked in my oven…I was scared it would be pink inside and nothing is grosser to an ex-vegetarian of Jain extraction than undercooked meat.  And my first yeasted bread…well…you get the point.

And Pie Crust loomed above it all. The thought of all that binding, rolling, freezing, the secret ingredients in all the many recipes I came across, the time investment required –  lets just say I’ve let many a cherry and strawberry season go by with no pie to show for it. No longer! The next time strawberries show their pretty little heads in Bombay, they’re going to be pied.

So this newfound courage came with a very encouraging post on Chez Pim and just enough instruction so that I felt like I had a watchful guardian angel of pies on my shoulder. I wanted to bake a little something as a pre-birthday treat for A and his only desire is for variety i.e. something I haven’t done before. I’d had a hankering for cinnamon all month long so I decided to man up and make us a double crusted apple pie.

That recipe and those instructions made it Ea-sy! And working the flour and butter with my hands was..I have to say…pretty pleasurable. I even got to inaugurate these adorable heart-shaped cookie cutters I’d bought a couple of years ago. I love when things just come together like that.  For the pie filling I combined ideas from Simply Recipes and Amateur Gourmet, upped the spices and added a splash of freshly squeezed lemon juice as I was using sweet Red Delicious apples and didn’t want the pie filling to be completely one-note, sugary sweet. I’ve got a recipe if you click on the link below. But lets just say, once it was out of the oven, we waited 47 minutes before we just couldn’t take it anymore. It looked LOVELY! I was thrilled. I posted pictures everywhere and emailed them to everyone. And we ate pie for 3 days and were generally thrilled because it turned out delicious!

Click here for the recipe