Mini Schnitz Hand Pies

 Hand Pies.  Tiny fist sized capsules of dough (fried or baked) that are used to contain and transport fabulous fillings into your gullet.

As long as I had the induction coil plate out for the Rosettes the other day, I decided to go ahead and deal with the dried apples that had been so unceremoniously displaced from the cookie jar.  The cookie jar spent all of Fall housing a gallon of dried apple slices from the Fall harvest.  As the season switched from the crisp autumn air to full on frigid, I noticed the apples were being nibbled on less and less as a snack.  The jar now holds oatmeal pecan toffee cookies, and the apples were thrown into a large ziploc baggie on the counter.

I had plans to just make two, full-sized, Schnitz pies, one for us and one for the neighbors.  But the more I thought of it, the more I started to lean towards making smaller hand pies. A pie is cut into 6 or 8 pieces and then gone.  I can get far more hand pies than 12 or 16 if I make them hand sized, or better yet, bite sized, which means more gifts.  

Hand pies are prevalent in many cultures, they have many names, and can be filled with either sweet or savory fillings and can either be made with a doughy, biscuit like crust, or a flaky, pie dough like crust.

Schnitz pie, is an apple pie made from re-hydrated, dried apple slices.  I sometimes add raisins.  The hens have eaten all the raisins I had in the house this time, so these are just plain apple.

The recipe is simple and non-exact for the filling.

Place about 2 cups of dried apples slices in a pot and cover with water.  They'll float, so push them under.  Cover the pot and simmer as low as you can for about 30-40 minutes.  You can also use apple juice, or a combination of apple juice and water.

Drain the apples.  I simply pour the now re-hydrated apples into my small mixing bowl with the flat beat attachment, or even the smaller whisk attachment. 

I then add:

2 teaspoons of cinnamon

2 Tablespoons of brown sugar

dash of salt

dash of of Nordic Spice (optional)

I gently work the apples and spices until they are almost a paste, but still have texture.

For the dough you can use store bought biscuit or pie dough or you can use your own favorite recipe. The trick it to make it thin so it cooks through in the hot oil.

You can cut large circles and then place filling in the center and fold the dough into a half moon shape, or you can cut two circles, placing one on top of the other - like making ravioli - sealing the edged with a little milk wash and a fork on either shape.  I used a biscuit cutter and my ravioli cutter to shape, and seal in one blow.

You then fry at 370 degrees until golden brown, flipping them over when needed,  and then remove and allow to drain.

 

Dust with powdered sugar if you like.

When you're miles and miles away from a good doughnut...

No, they're not good for you, but every once in a while you just have to have a fresh ring of fried dough and a tall, cold glass of milk.  But when the closest doughnuts, mediocre at best, are a 30 minute drive one way and the really good ones are a little further, but cost an arm and a leg and there's a looming ice storm and blizzard and you MUST have them, you do what needs to be done.

You google doughnut recipes.

I am picky when it comes to doughnuts.  My favorite are chocolate cake doughnuts, moist but not greasy, with vanilla icing. I was out of baking cocoa, so those were out of the question.

Next in line for the crown are simple, plain, old fashioned glazed yeast doughnuts.  Now, I've never made doughnuts. I don't own a fryer, but I do have a large cast iron dutch oven.  My mouth watered at the prospect. So that was the plan, a vat of 350 degree oil on my gas stove.  That WAS the plan.  But when I dug out my clip-on thermometer, I discovered that it slid up and down in its mounting so what the actual temperature was at any given moment was anyone's guess.  Reeling in my disappointment, my wind whirled with other options.

The electric fry pan!  It wasn't very deep, but it did have an automatic thermostat, so that was good.  And if I was careful loading the pan and flipping the depth I could work around.

I scrolled through dozens of recipes to find one that wasn't overly complicated and for one that required ingredients I had on hand.

Bingo! Krispy Kreme Copycat from Genius Kitchen

The photos on the site aren't the best, as the doughnuts are over cooked.

I also used metal skewers to flip and lift the doughnuts. And I kept the glaze warm and after letting the glaze set, I dipped them again.

I used my 3 inch and 1 inch biscuit
cutting rings to form the doughnuts.
They looked rather sad.

Once they hit the oil, my worries were
over.  They puffed and filled out nicely.

Using a skewer for a quick flip.

Cooked to golden.

Draining on a cooling rack above a paper towel catch all.

Of course when you make doughnuts, you get doughnut ball!
I also made all the scraps into balls.

Glazed and ready to eat.

With the remaining scraps, I mixed apple, sugar and cinnamon
and pressed together and made apple fritters for Doc.

Æbleskiver - Bite size pieces of Danish Heaven

When it comes to breakfast, I'm not generally a fan.  No matter the hour, I'm not really awake yet and to have a really delicious breakfast you need to put some work into it.  The brain cells have to be kicking.  This either means settling for cereal (which I REALLY don't care for), making a nice breakfast casserole the night before for a mindless reheat in the morning, or attempting to put something together as complicated as the International Space Station communications system on the number of brain cells held by a goldfish, all while being distracted by the growlings of your own stomach, and the grumblings of every one else waiting on food.

My breakfasts usually fall somewhere between cold, soggy chunks of cardboard from a cardboard box and things that require a tri-fold brochure of instructions and an ingredient list as long as your arm.  Most days a protein bar on the fly, or a bagel with peanut butter or cream cheese are the meal of choice.  After all, the bagel can be toasting while I'm out feeding the flock their gourmet breakfast. (Somedays, their breakfast is nicer than mine - warm oatmeal, fruit (albeit bruised), and left over fridge goodies.)

Yes, I know I have chickens.  WHY aren't I eating EGGS for breakfast?  They're free.  They're high in protein. They're delicious. They're quick and easy to make.  Well, sometimes supply is outstripped by demand, and I forget to put eggs aside for us.  Sometimes, I just cannot stand to look at another egg.

Breakfasts are just plain necessary.  You are literally breaking a Fast.  Your last meal or snack was probably around 7pm the night before and you've gone all night, almost 10 or 11 hours without eating or drinking.  Your body needs fuel to get going and get those brain cells kicking so you can make it to lunch without eating a coworker.  As a child, and actually well into my 20s, I was a breakfast skipper.  It's not good for you.  By my late 20s, I finally figured that out.  But I was still not a fan of breakfast.  I think it's just that I'm just not a morning person, period.

I do enjoy complicated typically breakfast food for an evening meal, but it's important to note that by the evening meal, I am working on all cylinders. Rarely, once in a blue with pink polka-dots moon, I actually get up at 430 in the morning, fully awake and hankering for FOOD for breakfast.  Not just sustenance to get me to lunch.  This past Monday was the day.

But what to fix?  I enjoy pancakes.  I LOVE waffles, especially with homemade syrup and sausage patties and scrambled eggs.  But this time all I could think of was a big batch of aebleskiver.  If you've never heard of them, don't worry, you aren't alone.  Think of them as pancake balls, but BETTER!  Like doughnut balls, but better.  They are light and airy, can be filled or not, can be sweet or savory.  The Danes knew what they were doing when they came up with this menu item.  Traditionally it is only served during the Christmas holiday season, but why wait?

By now you've either scrolled down and peeked at the photos, or you've clicked on the above link and noticed that these treats are perfect little balls.  "They look complicated" "Round is hard" "HOW do you cook THOSE?"  Well there IS a trick, an aebleskiver pan!  If you are an antique shopper, you've probably seen the cast iron pan and looked right over it.  OR you've looked at it and wondered why there was a cast iron pan created especially for cooking golf balls, and put it back down after snapping a quick photo for a laugh on your twitter feed.  THAT was an aebleskiver pan.

There are many newer pans on the market, made from space age non-stick materials. But I really enjoy the heft of an old, well seasoned, cast iron pan.  My own is from a local antique store and has ridiculously deep wells.  Other pans, new and old, typically have half-sphere wells.  Either works well, you just have to practice with YOUR pan and YOUR stove top to find the best temperature and cooking time for YOU.

For the batter you CAN cheat and use prepackaged pancake or waffle mix, but I find that when you do, the balls are more dense than traditional aebleskivers.  After all, you are making pancake or waffle balls.  The traditional recipe is not that hard or time consuming to make.  Once you've had the original recipe(s), of which there are hundreds on line, and then have a mix recipe, I'm certain you'll stick to an original one.

Here the recipe I use that I find the most tasty for both my empty balls or filled balls, both sweet and savory fillings.

Batter:

3 eggs total- separated
+++++++
3 egg whites from above
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
+++++++
3 egg yolks from above
1 Tablespoon of white sugar
1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt (OR 1/8th teaspoon of regular table salt)
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
2 teaspoons of vanilla
pinch of cardamon (optional)
pinch of cinnamon (optional)
1 3/4 cups of buttermilk (OR 1 3/4 cups of milk with 2 teaspoons of vinegar added- allow to sit for 5 minutes)
6 Tablespoons of butter, melted and cooled
9-11 ounces - by weight- of all purpose flour
++++++++
1 Tablespoon of melted butter to grease the wells in the pan

Directions:

Beat the egg whites and Cream of Tartar until stiff peaks form and set aside for later use.
+++++++
In a mixing bowl,  combine the egg yolks, sugar, salt, baking soda, vanilla, and spices (if using). Mix until well combined. SLOWLY add the milk and cooled, melted butter. Add the flour gradually until it is the consistency of a medium pancake batter, not runny, but not thick like cookie dough.  It should run, but not like soup or stew.  Small lumps are fine.

Fold in the eggs white and set the batter aside while you heat the pan to a medium temperature.  It is better to start low and work your way to a higher temperature.  Cast iron holds heat for a long time and lower temperature takes a while.  Burned aebleskivers are not yummy.

When your pan is ready, use a pastry brush to quickly wipe each well with a little of melted butter.  I use a large cookie disher to fill my wells- to just under the top edge for unfilled balls and 3/4 of the way for balls I am going to fill with goodness.

Filling:  Use your imagination.  From cooked meats, little bits of fruit or jelly, Nutella, chocolate chips, it's all fair game.

For filled cups: Fill wells to 3/4 full and add your tiny bit of filling to the center, then add more batter to near the top of the well.

So now you've put batter in the well, now what?  Let it cook for a bit, until you see the edge dry out and stop shining, just like a pancake.  Using a skewer, poke the ball about halfway up the side and into the cooked shell.

Pull the shell halfway up the side of the well, which will spill uncooked batter into the hot well.

Let that cook for a bit and turn the ball one last time, which will pour the remaining uncooked batter into the hot well, and complete the ball shape.

When they are finished, I put mine on a plate covered in a paper towel, and set them in the microwave to keep them hot. (do not turn the microwave on, just use it as a hot box to store the balls.)

Serve hot with syrup, or more melted butter, jelly, or confectioners sugar.  Go wild!

They freeze well and microwave for a quick breakfast when you want them.  OH, and they are delicious cold too!