Pie & Spaetzle

When you're making pie dough, it's important that you keep the dough as cold as possible and that you touch it as little as you can. If you want your pie to come out flaky, then it's also important that you leave pretty big pieces of butter in it for when it goes into the oven. In order to do this, you have to "cut" the butter into the dough, which means you cover it in flower and sort of stretch it out with your fingers into longer pieces. When the butter melts in the oven, it creates flakes because the butter is gone from the place where it was, and steam fills up those little pockets. When the pie crust comes out of the oven, it deflates like the cream puffs did, and then you've got your flakes.

This recipe can be found at allrecipes.com.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, chilled and diced
• 1/4 cup ice water

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
2. Roll dough out to fit a 9 inch pie plate. Place crust in pie plate. Press the dough evenly into the bottom and sides of the pie plate.

Spaetzle is are German dumplings. They're basically little bready noodles. If you make them too thick then they're no good to eat. You can add other things to spaetzle, like peppers and onions, cheese, etc. It doesn't  look too good, in my opinion, but it really just looks like a bunch of short and thickish noodles mixed in with whatever else you might have added to it. We shaped our spaetzle using a colander. If you pile the dough at the bottom of the colander and push it through into boiling water, then you've got your spaetzle! However, there are also more traditional spaetzle makers, and you can also make it using a knife and cutting board, but that's a pain in everyone's behind.

This recipe can also be found at allrecipes.com.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 pinch freshly ground white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 gallon hot water
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Directions

1. Mix together flour, salt, white pepper, and nutmeg. Beat eggs well, and add alternately with the milk to the dry ingredients. Mix until smooth.
2. Press dough through spaetzle maker, or a large holed sieve or metal grater.
3. Drop a few at a time into simmering liquid. Cook 5 to 8 minutes. Drain well.
4. Saute cooked spaetzle in butter or margarine. Sprinkle chopped fresh parsley on top, and serve.  

 

A galette is an old-fashioned pie with a hole in the top and all of the innards piled in the middle of it. I did not like or dislike it more than a regular apple pie. 

I think that my group is getting much more efficient. I am no longer the one always washing dishes, and I think the other girls are gradually becoming more considerate of me. This week, I don't have anything to complain about. Big surprise, right?