Apple Roquefort Bacon Pie Food

BACON APPLE PIE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400°F.
• Mix apple pie filling, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon juice in a bowl and pour into pie crust (in a pie pan or tin). Smooth with a spatula.
• Create bacon weave on top of pie: Lay two strips across the pie so that they intersect in the middle and are at right angles. Turn the pie so that the lower strip points toward you. Continue adding more bacon to the left and the right, creating an alternating over-under pattern with the single strip that runs side-to-side.
• At this point, there should five or six strips of bacon pointing toward the front of the pie and one strip running side-to-side which weaves over and under the other five or six strips.
• Begin laying a strip of bacon next to the on running side-to-side. Start at one end and create an over-under pattern opposite the first one by lifting up alternating strips, laying this piece down, and replacing the strips you lifted. Continue on both sides until the pie is completely covered in a bacon lattice with an alternating over-under weave.
• Trim the ends that hang over the sides. Save these trimmings for use in recipes that call for diced bacon (you can freeze them).
• Bake 45-60 minutes, or until bacon is crispy and completely cooked. You may want to bake this over a baking sheet in case apple or bacon grease ooze over the sides.
• Cool for 10 minutes before serving. Serve with caramel praline, dulce de leche, or similar ice cream. If desired, you can cooked up the bacon trimmings and garnish the ice cream with them.

BACON-AND-APPLE QUICHE WITH FLAKY PIE CRUST

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 425 and set the rack in the middle. Combine the flour and salt in a food processor and pulse once or twice. Add the butter and process until the mixture looks like cornmeal. Put the mixture in a bowl and add the ice water; mix with your hands until you can form the dough into a ball, adding another tablespoon of ice water if necessary. Wrap the ball in plastic and freeze for 10 minutes (or refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or up to a couple days).
• Sprinkle a countertop with flour and put the dough on it, sprinkling more flour on top. Use a rolling pin to roll with light pressure from the center out. If the dough is hard, let it rest for a few minutes; if it's sticky, add a little flour. Roll, adding flour and rotating and turning the dough as needed; use ragged edges of dough to repair any tears, adding a drop of water when you press a patch in place.
• When the diameter of the dough is about 2 inches greater than that of a 9-inch tart pan, drape the dough over the rolling pin and transfer it into the pie plate. Press the dough firmly into the plate, all over. Once the dough is in place, trim as necessary; freeze for 10 minutes or refrigerate for 30 or so.
• Prick the pie crust with a fork all over, then bake it for 10 to 12 minutes, or until beginning to brown; remove and turn the oven down to 375. Meanwhile, fry the bacon in a large, deep skillet over medium heat, then remove from pan with a slotted spoon; cool and chop.
• Pour out all but one tablespoon of bacon fat and use the same pan to fry the apples. Add salt, pepper and rosemary. Turn the heat up to medium-high and cook, stirring frequently, until the apple is soft and lightly browned, at least 15 minutes. Adjust the heat so it doesn't brown too much or crisp up. Turn off the heat and spread apples onto the crust; then sprinkle with bacon and cheese.
• In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and cream. Put the semicooked shell on a baking sheet and pour in the egg mixture. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until almost firm (it should still jiggle just a little in the middle) and lightly browned on top; reduce the oven heat if the shell's edges are darkening too quickly. Cook on a rack; serve warm.

BACON-LATTICED APPLE PIE

Steps:

• Make the pie dough:
• In a stand mixer fitted with the flat beater attachment, combine the flour, salt, and sugar with your fingertips. Add the cold butter and mix on low until the dough looks like coarse sand. Turn the machine off and blend any large pieces of butter with your fingertips, making sure there are no pieces of butter larger than the size of a pea.
• In a measuring cup, combine the bourbon and ice water. With the stand mixer on low, slowly dribble in the bourbon water 1 tablespoon at a time. Add just enough liquid for the dough to pull away from the sides of the bowl. (You may not need to use all the bourbon water.) Pinch the dough between your fingertips; it should be smooth, not sticky or crumbly. Gently press the dough together and shape into a disk. Wrap the disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 3 days.
• Make the filling:
• In a bowl, combine the apples, lemon juice, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Toss with your fingertips until the apple slices are coated evenly.
• Assemble and bake the pie:
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough, rotating it in quarter-turns, until 12 to 14 inches in diameter and 1/8 inch thick. Gently fit the dough into a 9-inch pie plate. Trim the edges of the dough with scissors, making sure to leave at least a 1-inch overhang.
• Crack the egg into a small dish. Without breaking the yolk, use a pastry brush to gently coat the bottom and sides of the pie shell with a thin layer of the egg white (reserve the remaining egg). The egg white creates a barrier between the filling and the crust as it bakes, keeping the crust from getting soggy. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Spoon the filling into the chilled pie shell. Place 3 bacon slices on top of the filling horizontally. Then, one by one, place the remaining 3 strips vertically, lifting every other horizontal strip to create a basket weave lattice. Crimp the edges by folding the excess overhang inward at a slight angle and pressing down firmly with your thumb.
• Continue crimping the edges all the way around the pie, tucking in the ends of the bacon slices as you crimp the edges. Beat the reserved egg and gently brush onto the exposed edges of the pie dough. Refrigerate the pie for 20 minutes to allow the pastry to set.
• Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil.
• Place the pie on the lined baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 375°F and bake until the crust is golden brown and the bacon is crisp, about 30 minutes. Cover the edges of the crust with foil if it is browning too quickly. Drain off any excess liquid by tipping the pie to one side. Let cool for 1 hour before serving.

APPLE ROQUEFORT BACON PIE

Steps:

• Roll out the pastry and line a 12 inch pie plate with the bottom crust.
• Roll out the remaining dough for the top crust, then refrigerate both until needed.
• Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
• In a large skillet over medium heat, saute the bacon until crispy; transfer to paper towels to drain, leaving about 3 tablespoons of the fat in the pan.
• Add the apples to the skillet and saute in the bacon fat, over low heat, for several minutes, or until the outer layer of apple softens a bit.
• Add honey, flour, lemon juice, thyme, salt and pepper to the skillet and stir.
• Stir in the bacon.
• Transfer the apple mixture into the prepared pie pan,.
• Crumble the cheese over the apples, then cover it with the second crust.
• Trim and crimp the crust, then chill the pie in the freezer for 10 minutes.
• Cut several slits in the top crustm the drizzle the top with honey.
• Bake for 15 minutes, or until the crust is just blistered and blond.
• Reduce the oven to 350 degrees and bake for at least 30 minutes more.
• Cool the pie completely before cutting, at least several hours.

CARAMELIZED MAPLE APPLE PIE WITH CANDIED BACON CRUMBLE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Place bacon on a baking sheet and sprinkle 1 tablespoon brown sugar over the top.
• Bake in the preheated oven until crisp, 10 to 20 minutes.
• Line a 9-inch springform pan with pie crust pastry; refrigerate.
• Combine apples and lemon juice in a bowl and toss to coat.
• Melt 1/4 cup butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat; add maple syrup and 1/3 cup brown sugar. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer until mixture is reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Carefully add apples and stir well to coat. Cook until apples just start to soften and get a bit of color on them, about 5 minutes. Return the apples to the bowl leaving behind the sweet syrup.
• Stir vinegar into sweet syrup; simmer until syrup is reduced and consistency of maple syrup, about 5 minutes. Carefully pour syrup over the apples. Cool for 10 minutes.
• Combine flour, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup unsalted butter, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a food processor; pulse until crumbly. Break bacon into pieces, add to food processor, and pulse until combined with the crumble.
• Tip apples into the pie crust in the springform pan. Fold dough over part of the apple filling to form an edge. Crimp the edges between your fingers. Top the apple filling with the crumble. Brush crust with cream and top with white sugar.
• Bake pie in the preheated oven until the juices bubble and the crust is deeply golden, about 1 hour. If the crust starts to brown too quickly turn the oven down to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

APPLE, ROQUEFORT, AND RED LEAF LETTUCE WITH PUMPERNICKEL CROUTONS

Steps:

• Cook bacon in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring, until crisp, about 5 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain, then add pumpernickel to fat in skillet and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until crisp, about 4 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain and season with salt and pepper.
• Whisk together vinegar and mustard. Add oil in a slow stream, whisking until emulsified, then season with salt and pepper.
• Halve apple lengthwise and core. Cut apple halves crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices.
• Toss lettuce with cranberries, apple, croutons, half of bacon, and dressing. Divide salad among plates, then dot with Roquefort and sprinkle with remaining bacon.

FIRST PRIZE S'MORES PIE

Steps:

• 1. Make the crust. Crumble graham crackers into the work bowl of a food processor and process until finely ground. Alternatively, you can put them in a bag and whack them with a rolling pin until finely crushed. Pour melted butter into crumbs and mix (hands are best for this) until the butter is fully incorporated and the texture is that of wet sand. Butter or oil a 9-inch pie pan and firmly press the graham cracker crumbs against the sides, then against the bottom of the pan (the underside of a measuring cup works well for smoothing the bottom crust). Chill for at least 30 minutes to avoid crumbling when serving.
• 2. While the crust chills, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare the chocolate filling. Put the chocolate in a large mixing bowl. Heat the cream in a saucepan until scalded - do not boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and allow to stand for 1 minute. Whisk the cream and chocolate together until glossy and smooth. Add a pinch of salt, then crack the egg into the chocolate mixture and whisk to fully incorporate. Pour into chilled crust and bake for 25 minutes, or until the filling is set but still slightly wobbly in the center. Remove from the oven and cool completely.
• 3. Prepare the marshmallow topping. Pour 1/4 cup water into the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the gelatin on top. In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, stir together the remaining 1/4 cup of water, sugar and corn syrup just until sugar is dissolved. Heat until a candy thermometer reads 260 degrees, or hard-ball stage. Remove from heat, turn stand mixer to medium speed to begin beating the bloomed gelatin, and slowly pour in sugar syrup, scraping any remaining syrup from the pan with a heat-proof spatula. Begin increasing the speed of the mixer, avoiding any splashing, and beat until the mixture is white, fluffy and tripled in volume. Add vanilla and beat for a few moments more. Pour the mixture onto the cooled chocolate layer, gently spreading it to the edges of the crust with a spatula. Refrigerate, uncovered, 30 to 60 minutes.
• 4. The last step: brûlée the marshmallow. A torch is best for this (a propane torch from the hardware store or a butane crème brûlée torch). If using a torch, clear the area of any flammable items, ignite the torch, and slowly wave the flame over the surface of the marshmallow until you achieve the desired level of toastiness. If you do not have a torch, use the broiler of your oven. Preheat the broiler, cover the edges of the pie crust with foil or pie shields, place the pie on a baking sheet and broil - watching carefully to prevent burning - for 2 to 3 minutes, rotating as necessary.
• 5. To slice the pie, it helps to dip your knife in hot water, then dry it with a towel. The heat facilitates easy slicing through the marshmallow layer.