CREAM CHEESE PIE CRUST

• I’m still determined to get better at making the pastry by hand. As a matter of course, I chilled the dry ingredients and rubbed the cream cheese in with my fingers. This combines so easily and the flat cream cheese pieces must add to the flakiness of the pie.

• I used the pastry cutter with the butter.

• But, I thought that maybe rubbing the butter into the flour would laminate the two ingredients nicely so I tried it.

• It didn’t rub in as well since the butter was ice cold, but the effect changed the final handling of the dough.

• I stirred in the cream and vinegar

• And, dumped it mess on the counter.

• It was basically together. All I had to do was smear the dough one time and it was together.

• It rolled out perfectly and handled nicely. We’ll see how it bakes up.

FILLING

• Prepare the Apples: I used Lobo apples because it’s early in the season here. Lobos are super dry and not too sweet.

• Thicken the Apple Cider: Easy.

• Drain and Concentrate the Apple Juices: For as dry as the apples were, boy did they put out some juice.

• I love when this happens because concentrating the more juices to concentrate, the more magic in the pie.

• Complete the Filling: Easy

BAKE THE PIE

• I rolled the pastry very thin so the finished effect was less dramatic, but it still puffed and showed me its beautiful layers.

• I have high expectations for this pie. The proof is in the cutting.

• WHAT ARE THE ALPHA BAKERS? : Here’s how it works: once a week, for the next two years, 25 Alpha Bakers commit to baking their way through every recipe of Rose Levy Beranbaum’s newly published The Baking Bible. Each week we post our experiences on our blog sites: our successes, our failures, our likes and dislikes. The recipes are scheduled in advance so that everyone is baking the same recipe at the same time. No recipes can be shared in my Alpha Bakers Baking Bible posts due to publishing restrictions enforced by the publisher, but if you love to bake, this is a must-have book. You can see other tutorials for the same recipe at the following link The Baking Bible Alpha Bakers at http://rosesalphabakers.blogspot.ca/.