Growing up with the metric system and convert my old recipes from grams into ounces, from Celsius into Fahrenheit is one thing and can be achieved quite easily, sometimes even in the head without pen and paper or even a calculator.
But there is way more to that, as Americans when it comes to baking often only use volume measurements and we use simple units of weight.
Example: 150 grams of "regular" sugar is 5.3 ounces or 5 3/10 ounces (weight to weight) - but the required amount in volume in cups will vary with whatever ingredient you will measure. The volume of 150 grams of regular sugar and 150 grams of powdered sugar do not fill the same cup (of tea.)
That's where the internet can come in handy and a regular "apple pie a la mode de la grand-mere" (Grandma's apple pie) becomes a high tech researched google R&D project.
Back to our sugar problem - a recipe (not mine below) asks for 150 grams of regular sugar and that equals 2/3 of a US cup. It also asks for powdered sugar and just to show the difference, I choose the same amount - 150 grams of powdered sugar is still 5 3/10 ounces - weight remains weight - but the volume of powdered sugar is much bigger. So with the help of the converter at the Traditional Oven website - we'll find that 150 grams of powdered sugar equal 1.2 or 1 1/5 US cups (almost twice the size).
So after all the hard math here comes the hand on part, if you would like to surprise your friends with this easy made, but very tasty apple pie (see pic on top). All measurements are non-metric adapted for the US. So let's have a blast (or better just some fun) in the kitchen.
| for the dough: 2 eggs 3/8 cup sugar 1 1/5 cup flour 1/2 tsp Baking Powder 8 1/2 tbsp melted Butter | for the filling: ~ 2 lbs Apples (or other fruit) 3 tbsp Lemon Juice 7 1/2 tbsp Butter 2/5 cup Powdered Sugar 1 tbsp Vanilla Pudding Powder 3 eggs 1 lemon - grated zest |
Let's start with the dough - mix the eggs and the sugar and stir till creamy. Add flour, baking powder and the melted butter and mix well. Take a spring form pan (9"), butter the bottom and the sides and add the dough. Spread evenly and with the help of a spoon form a ring, coming up the sides, about 1 1/2 inches in height. Keep the dough cool (fridge), preheat oven to 360.
Tip: if you have a problem forming the ring on the side, let the dough cool in the freezer for a couple a minutes and then try to drag it up the pan wall.
For the filling: you roughly need a little less than 2 lbs of tart cooking apples. Peel them if you want to, else just core them and slice them about 1/2 inch thick. And then cut the slices into about thumb nail size pieces. Put all the apples in a bowl and pour the juice of a lemon (or two) over the apples, depending on how tart or sweet you want to have your final pie. The lemon juice also keeps the apples from "browning" immediately.
Take the really soft butter, the powdered sugar and Vanilla Pudding powder - mix and stir till creamy.
Separate the eggs in yolks and whites, add the lemon zest to egg yolk and add to the mix, beat the egg white till stiff and fold in. Carefully fold in the apple pieces.
Pour the whole mixture on top of the dough and spread evenly.
Bake for about 50 minutes (original recipe). I found that ovens here sometimes need a tad longer than that, check with knitting needle to see if the inside of your pie is done. If your pie browns to fast on top, cover with tin foil.
Let the whole pie cool out in the spring form pan, then take out, Dust the top with some powdered sugar - I never do. Serve by itself or with whipped cream or even add some Vanilla ice cream to it.
E Guete!
P.S. Over the years I also played around with some other fruits - and created plum, peach and pear varieties. I also added a shot of Bourbon to the apples and peaches before, or even doubled the Vanilla Pudding powder amount, to add a bit more of Vanilla flavor to it. The recipe is so easy, that you can creatively change and experiment with some stuff.
Sources: http://www.traditionaloven.com
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