Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Famous Fried Pies

Hello again!
     Luke and I have had a bit of down time lately. He recently had his wisdom teeth removed, and is med down for a week or so. Well, he's getting restless, haha. He's always wanted me to learn how to make fried pies like his grandma. I don't think I'll ever get as good as she is at cooking, but I sure do try. Lol.
     Anways, for those of you who've never heard of fried pies, they're DELICIOUS! It's basically a turnover. A fried shell with fruit inside, if you will. Lol. Well, Luke's been wanting a frydaddy for a while anyway, so we decided to get the ingredients and attempt to make them.
     There's a few different ways to go about this. We decided to make our own dough. We WANTED to make our own fruit filling by using dried fruit, but the dry fruit down here is very expensive. So, we opted for the cheaper and bought pie filling.

This pastry recipe will make twelve 5- to 6-inch pies.



•3 cups all-purpose flour


•1 teaspoon salt


•3/4 cup Crisco or other good vegetable shortening


•1 egg, lightly beaten


•1/4 cup cold water


•1 teaspoon white vinegar


Mix together the flour and salt. Cut in the shortening with a pastry blender, fork, your hands, or whatever method works best for you, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir together the beaten egg with the water and sprinkle over flour mixture. Sprinkle in the vinegar, mixing lightly, until ingredients are well combined. Form the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least one hour.


We attempted this, and ended up having to add another 1/2 cup of water b/c our dough wasn't forming right. That pretty much fixed it. You can ALSO use canned biscuits. Just roll the biscuts flat.
 
Like I said, we went the cheap rough and used pie filling, but if you can, I highly suggest using dry fruit. It's so much yummier! Here's how to make the filling:
 
The Filling



Although the basic recipe is listed, please note that for each cup of dried fruit, you need at least a half-cup and probably more of water, and 2 tablespoons of sugar. If you make a dozen pies, you may want to mix up the flavors. Using the proportions in this recipe, for example, I made six Apricot and six Apple/Cherry by using approximately 1-1/2 cups of dried apricots and 1 cup of apples and 1/3 cup of dried cherries. Of course, I cooked the apricots separate from the apples and cherries.


•3 cups dried fruit (apricots, peaches, apples)


•1-1/2 cups water


•6 tablespoons sugar


•1/4 teaspoon cinnamon


•1/4 teaspoon ground allspice


On very low heat, simmer the dried fruit in the water for 30 to 45 minutes, or until very tender. Add water if necessary to prevent scorching. Allow to cool; mash fruit slightly. Stir in the sugar and spices. This step may be done in advance and refrigerated; however, warm up the fruit (microwave is fine) enough to take the chill off and make it workable before filling your pies.


So, now I was super excited! I rolled my dough flat, and stuffed the silly things, and the pressed the edges together with a fork.. like so!


You can also go about this next part two ways. Since Luke and I bought a deep fryer, that's how we did it. You can also use a skillet. Just fry the pies in vegetable oil. Just be careful it doesn't splatter on you. We fried ours in the fryer for 2 minutes. But whatever works for you. So long as they're golden brown. :)


This was our final product!


We dipped ours in powdered sugar. Yummy! This recipe makes twelve pies. So, go have fun! Hope ya'll enjoy!

2 comments:

  1. Yum!! Thanks Age. Chris loves fried pies. I'll have to make these sometime. Next year you should have this blog printed up as a book- because then you'd have all your favorite recipes in a really cute layout and book.

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  2. Haha! I know right! I always blog about stuff I'm making/baking, but good grief! That's all I do now! Haha. Like I said, biscuits is an easy way to go, but I'd definitely go the dried fruit route. Ours weren't bad, but the ones I've had made from dried fruit were FANtastic! I hope he likes em! :)

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