Homemade Apple Crumble

My Apple Crumble with lots of crumbles

I  thought I'm finally done with apple pie. Apparently I was wrong. I overheard a conversation on apple pies between my colleagues that piqued my interest which slowly built up to an intense craving for my very own self made apple pie. Don't ask me why but I just love appie pies but I would normally opt to have the crumble as topping. The decision to bake came at the time I was shopping for some baking stuffs in Chang Tung in Taman Megah. It was there and then that I decided that I would scoot home to bake the apple tart today. 

The apple tart before topping the crumble



Once again, the strange phenomenon happen. The very thing that you crave for so much and couldn't wait to get your hands on, suddenly doesn't seem appealing once it is right before you. The pies are great .... I mean it isn't as if I've made it for the 1st time. Peeling the apples, core it and subsequently chop it took a great deal of my time. Thereafter, was patiently cooking the filling in the pot. Green apples are sour in nature and I deliberately reduced the sugar. Next, my faithful food processor helped me to produce the dough out in a jiffy. Finally, it's baking of the pie shell and the crumble.

The pot with apple filling


I had this as part of my dinner  at almost half past nine. I shall bake the remaining tomorrow morning as breakfast for myself and for cousin Soo (who else ...)

My One Pot Vegetable Pie

I bought the 50% off baking voucher a month plus ago and registered for this Pau making class. Instead of posting pictures of the pau I made during the class, I was however eager to show off my easy peasy vegetable pie. What triggered this sudden impulse was all because of the chicken pau I made in the morning class. The chicken filling smell so darn good but I could only taste the gravy all because I'm still on vegetarian (and will be for the next 2 months). It was agonizing enough not to touch meat of any sort (minus the fainting spell) but the pure agony of all was to watch hubby wolfing down the brownish reddish crispy fried chicken the other day at this Melur Discovery. Seriously, at this rate, I'm gonna cracked very soon. I clamped  down on my temptation today and that meant I didn't get to eat the chicken pau I made.

To compensate, I decided to modify the filling to a vegan filling, subsituting the chicken with all the vegetables that could go with it : shitake mushroom, green peas, carrots, celery and capsicum. Naturally it didn't taste as good without chicken meat but that'll do for the meantime. The filling could go very well with rice or instant noodles but since I have 2 tiny sheets of puff pastry in my fridge, I thought it was time for my remekins to make its appearance. And so I had a vegetarian pie for dinner and nice juicy papaya for dessert. What? Hubby? As long as he is eating at home with me, he has to eat what I cook. Period.

Filling (chop to small cubes for all vegetables) :
Shitake mushroom
Carrot
Celery
Green Peas
Green Capsicum
Red Capsicum
Big onions 1
Garlic 3 cloves
 Hoisin sauce 1tbsp
Oyster sauce 1tbsp
Sesame oil 1tsp

Other Ingredients :
Puff pastry
Beaten eggs as egg wash

Method :

1. Heat up oil and saute onions and garlic together till fragrant.
2. Stir in shitake mushroom and saute. Once mushrooms become slightly softer, add in the rest of the vegetables.
3. Stir in the sauces, with sesame oil coming in last.
4. Turn off fire and transfer filling into remekins.
5. Brush a little beaten eggs on sides of the puff pastry and place the side with beaten eggs downward to cover the remekin. Pull it slightly to stick to the edge of remekin to make it taut. Repeat same process with 2nd sheet. You may add another sheet (total 3 sheets of puff pastry) of puff pastry if you like. Brush and top with  puff pastry with beaten eggs and bake in a preheated oven for about 15 mins at 190 - 200C.

My cooking tips : Subsitute the filling with  chicken by removing mushrooms, capsicum and celery. This filling can be used to make chicken pau.