Continental Apple Slice, Sable Biscuits and making my own Apple Cider Vinegar!!

I made this from these windfalls:

And what you may well ask is THIS...it's a Continental Apple Slice full of gooey sour cream deliciousness, windfall apples and raisins atop a biscuit/cookie crust, a recipe gleaned from "Entertaining with Cranks" cookbook - the recipe requires Digestive Biscuits but as I didn't have any on hand I made the great Sable recipe from Martha Stewart HERE - lovely, simple, easy crisp biscuits that explode with buttery sugary happiness in each crumbly bite, they are a regular in this household - great sandwiched with a bit of butter and dunked in a good hot cup of tea - but I digress!! - I noticed Martha's recipe says it makes 110 biscuits - I think that really must be an error as I get about 24 out of it. I actually made half this recipe for my small 7" round dessert. 

Look how neat and tidy these biscuits/cookies are:

Do I see a little leftover cookie dough up there - and how long do you think that lasted in this house...ha ha ha!!!

So to start the actual apple recipe I made a biscuit/cookie crust - you can easily substitute graham crackers for this crust if you'd like OR in retrospect I think the recipe would work just as well with a nice pate brisee dough as the base - HERE is that recipe also from Martha (I add double the sugar just fyi - and a half measure of this recipe would work for the recipe I'm making here)

For the cookie/biscuit base:

6ozs crushed sables, Digestives or graham crackers

2oz melted salted butter (the salt really works in a cookie crust)

1. Mix the crumbs and melted butter together well.

2. Line a 7" loose bottom pie pan with parchment/greaseproof paper and push biscuit/butter mix evenly onto the base - the parchment will help a LOT in getting the dessert out and stop leakage via the loose bottomed pan.

3. Pop in the fridge to cool and get firm.

While the crust is firming up start assembling the pie/slice filling:

INGREDIENTS:

2 medium sized juicy, sweet and a bit tart apples - mine come as they are off the trees out the back - bruises and all, of course I just cut out the bruises: peel, core and slice thinly

2 oz/ 1/3 cup packed raisins

10 fl ozs/1 cup of sour cream

2 egg yolks

2oz/ 1/3 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon/1/2 teaspoon nutmeg or any combination of this you like

1/2oz/1 tablespoon butter

METHOD: Preheat oven to 400f

1. Put sliced apples and raisins in a pan with the 1/2oz of butter and cook gently until slightly soft but retaining their shape, be careful the apples don't stick as there won't be much moisture in the pan.

2. Remove base from fridge and cover with apples/raisins:

3. Beat together the sour cream, half of the sugar, egg yolks and spices and pour over the apples/raisins:

4. Put pie pan on a tray and into 400f oven for 15 minutes.

5. Remove from oven and sprinkle remaining sugar over the surface (with more nutmeg and or cinnamon if you like - I did) and return to the oven for about 20 minutes until the filling is puffed up, set and gloriously creme brullee looking like this:

6. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the pan then wait until a lot cooler before trying to slide off the parchment - I couldn't manage this so I left it on the parchment and pan bottom until the next day when it had firmed up enough to move.

The recipe says you can eat warm or cold - I tried it warm and removing a slice from the whole was a mess and it did taste good BUT today, one day later, the dessert has really set and was more DELICIOUS so if you can wait a day I would highly recommend it.

Yessirreeebobsyeruncle - that creme brulee-y type top is awfully nice!!! 

Are you ready to do the Continental?
 

FYI here is an excellent master weight - cups to ounces - chart from the fabulous KING ARTHUR website.

Here are some more pics of my apples, it's been a very good season - last year we didn't get ONE not one apple because there was a late frost that killed all the blossoms. I think this year has made up for it - yea!!! I love being able to walk a few yards from my house and find this bounty...so cool!!!

The deer will be happy this Autumn:

I've also been making my own apple cider vinegar from the cores and peels of the apples I've used for dessert making:

Who as a child used to play the game of trying to peel an apple in one go? I still do so with nearly every apple I peel - I drive myself nuts!

Just in case you're interested this is my fabric design and it's available here at Spoonflower

It's tasting pretty good so far - not as acidic as the bought variety but very much like a dry cider in flavour. Here's how you do it! It's ridiculously easy.

Well happy baking all - I have some more apple recipes I want to try soon - I had two epic fails last week but nevertheless I am not daunted - I will sally forth to unchartered apple delights.

And to finish a picture of sweet Eleanor asleep on the porch amidst the pink chrysanthemums - ah the joys of late summer!!!