10:09 PM >> Apple Experiments

On Tuesday I made another apple pie.  This time I did things a little differently.  In the mix for the dough I substituted a little bit of pancake mix for some of the flour.  This idea worked out.  It cooked up just fine.  The pie crust is a bit heavier because of the pancake sub.  Very interesting.  It's a little drier and fluffier than your typical pie crust, which I believe would make it better for eating with ice cream (I have not tried this combination yet). 

For some reason, people started mixing ice cream with pies.  That is so cool.  I wonder when that started and who is responsible?  And do they get royalties? 

So, here's the cool part.  After slicing up the apples I had a whole bowl full of the skins.  When I slice the skins off, I do it in a hurry so most of them have a good deal of the juicy apple part still attached.  Looking at that bowl of unused good stuff, the idea came to me.  I got out a medium-sized saucepan and added some apple cider vinegar and a little bit of water.   Next I dumped in the apples and let them start to cook. 

That's when I went to Google to find out how to make jelly.  I also looked up apple cider, while on Google.  But the jelly seemed easier and I thought I'd get better use out of it.  I went back to the kitchen.  I added some currants to the cooking apple mixture and let it cook some more.  When everything was all nice and mushy, I strained the juices, added sugar (both brown and regular), scooped out most of the currants and mashed them up, and let the whole thing come to a boil while I stirred it all around.  I put the jelly into a bowl thing.  I usually put leftovers in this bowl, but it worked nicely for the jelly.

The jelly tastes great.  I have already put it on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, on a piece of toast, and in tea.  I can't wait to make more jelly.  It is so much fun.  It makes you feel all colonial.  Next thing you know I'll be skinning buffalo and leaving nothing to waste, just like in the olden days.