A couple Ap.PIE.tizing creations

Pie 1

Hey everyone!
So, I am a complete failure at this weekly blogging thing but with 2 jobs and everything else, I don't feel so bad! I've been pretty busy because I recently started a youtube channel where I try to do fun DIY stuff there. (Link at the end of post), I got a new restaurant job where I work 4 days a week as well as my 3 days at the coffee shop.  Plus I have so many projects in mind that I'm trying to get started.  I also really value my social life so whenever I get a chance, I try to reconnect with old friends or get to know new friends. But I hope whatever your doing, you're well and thanks for checking out my blog; I really appreciate it.

Pie 2

 Recently in the past few weeks, I've gotten into baking pies! I've never made them before, so I thought I'd try my hand at it and I might be slightly obsessed.  Now, normally I would want to try to make everything from scratch but obviously with my lack of time I had to resort to buying pre-made crusts, which surprisingly taste pretty good.  Now onto the important question; what kind of pie did I make?  Well, I've made a couple but here are 2 that I've made that I really enjoyed! 







The first pie I made was a sheperds (cottage) pie with my favourite...bacon! It's super easy to make, all I needed was ground beef, potatoes, corn nibblets?, gravy, bacon and a pie crust.  First things first, you want to make mash potatoes and cook the ground beef with the gravy.

Different components of the pie

Some quick mash potatoes with butter and cream!

Beef cooked with onions and gravy

Best thing ever: Bacon :)

 Once every component of the pie has been created, it's time to put 'em together!  First I like to spread the beef onto the pie crust, followed by the corn (from a can) and lastly the mashed potatoes!

It should look like this (well mine did)

Finally it's time to add the bacon!  Now I made a lattice for it, folding/weaving the bacon over each other to create a fun pattern!  I trimmed the excess bacon around it to make it a round shape, then put it in the oven for 20 minutes or until I found the bacon cooked to my liking :)

Right before entering the oven!

Right after taking it out of the oven!

Once it's done (too your liking)  take it out of the oven and let it rest/cool for a bit (I'd say like 30 minutes?) to let it settle and the bacon crisp.  Unfortunately I didn't take in consideration that the bacon will shrink so it turned out like this instead of covering the whole pie but whatever, it's about the taste right?

The final product!  Turned out amazing and delicious

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Onto the next pie!  This one I got a little bit more creative with and tried different things.  I really wanted to make an apple pie but with a twist, so I thought to be creative I'd add caramel and my favourite ingrediant... can you guess what it is? Bacon! So this next pie is what I call my ABC pie (apple, bacon, caramel)
Obviously, you'll need apples (I used 2 granny smiths and 2 gala) bacon, caramel, spices (I used nutmeg and cinnamon), a premade (or handmade) pie crust.

Step 1: Cook the bacon and peel/cut apples. (I guess that's 2 steps?)  then sautee the apples in a pan with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg (the amount is to your discretion)  Once it's all mixed in add the caramel and let it reduce until all the flavours blend together.

Everything tossed together and mixing

Mix the caramel apple mixutre with some crushed bacon bits, leaving some bacon to top the pie (and eat)

Bacon + Apples (Caramel) = Yum

Add everything to the pie crust then cover with pie dough and put in the oven to bake!  Bake for 15 minutes or until crust is golden brown (Forgot to add, I brushed an egg yolk wash on the pie to make it golden)

Right before entering the oven

Right after taking it out of the oven!

Once cooked, let it cool for about 1-2 hours to let the caramel settle and so you won't have a runny pie!  Enjoy!  The flavours surprisingly work really well together.  The tartness of the granny smith apples really hold its on against the sweetness of the caramel and the savoriness of the bacon.

marked with 'A' for apple!

Hope you enjoyed these two pie recipes?  I wouldn't really call these recipes necessarily because it's so vague with not enough specific information to really follow.  But that's how I bake, I like to make really simple things with odd flavour combination that if needed uses no measurements.  Which means not one of my things can really be repeated to exact flavour profiles.  Oh well!  Hope you enjoyed this or at least made you hungry for pie!

(Make sure you check out my youtube channel for more fun stuff!: Click here and subscribe!)

Thanks for reading! Hope you have a pleasant day

Miguel