BLOGGER RECIPE

Satisfy taste for apples and cheese with one pie

For Jodi Bart, author of the Austin food blog Tasty Touring (tastytouring.com), blogging is a way to chronicle her adventures of travel and food. Bart has been sharing the good and the bad of what she discovers, from late-night eateries to breakfast tacos, on the blog since July 2008. Earlier this year, she started doing a weekly radio segment on KGSR on Thursday mornings to talk food with hosts Andy Langer and Bryan Beck.

Occasionally, she writes about recipes, such as this apple pie with Cheddar crust, adapted from Williams-Sonoma, which she made last year for Yom Kippur. In her blog post on making this pie, her first with a cheese crust, she said much of her pie inspiration comes from her mom.

"Her specialties are apple and strawberry-rhubarb," she says. "Each has a secret ingredient in the crust that I can't share here but might let slip after a few glasses of wine."

If you write a blog about food, e-mail abroyles@statesman.com and tell me about it. Maybe your recipe will make it into print.

— Addie Broyles

Apple Pie with Cheddar Crust

Dough:

21/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. sugar

6 oz. white Cheddar cheese, finely grated

2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1/3 to 1/2 cup ice water

Filling:

2 lb. Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4-inch slices

2 lb. McIntosh apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4-inch slices

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. grated nutmeg

4 tsp. cornstarch

1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

On top:

2 Tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 egg white, beaten with 1 tsp. water

2 tsp. sugar

In a mixer or food processor, mix flour, salt, sugar and cheese until combined. Add the butter and mix until it resembles course meal. Add 1/3 cup ice water and mix. The dough should hold together when squeezed with your fingers but should not be too sticky. If it crumbles, add more water 1 Tbsp. at a time. Divide the dough in half, shape each into a disk and wrap separately in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 1 hour.

Meanwhile, make the filling. In a large Dutch oven, stir together the apples, brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and cornstarch. Set over medium heat, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the apples are just tender and not mushy, about 20 minutes. Uncover and cook 5 to 7 minutes more. Off the heat, stir in the lemon juice. Cool 30 minutes.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let stand for 5 minutes. On a floured surface, roll out one disk into a 14-inch round, dusting with flour as needed. Press the dough into a 9-inch deep-dish ceramic pie dish. Trim the edges flush with the rim. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

On a large sheet of lightly floured parchment paper, roll out the remaining dough disk into a 12-inch round. Make the leaves yourself by using a small kitchen teaspoon to shape the leaves and a sharp knife to make the detail. Space the cutouts 1/2-inch apart and leave a 1-inch border to create a latticelike appearance in the dough left behind. Reserve the lattice and the cutouts for decorating. Reroll dough scraps to make more cutouts. Refrigerate lattice top and cutouts 30 minutes.

Position a rack in the lower third of an oven, place a baking sheet on the rack and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Let the pie shell, lattice top and leaf cutouts stand at room temperature 5 minutes. Transfer the apple filling to the pie shell, scatter the butter pieces on top, and gently invert the lattice top over the pie. Trim the edges flush with the rim of the dish and press crusts together to seal. Brush the underside of the leaf cutouts and the top crust with the egg wash. Press the cutouts along the edge of the crust; sprinkle the top of the pie with sugar. Place the pie dish on the preheated baking sheet. Bake until the crust is golden brown — 50 to 60 minutes. Cover the edges with foil if they become too dark. Cool on a wire rack at least 11/2 hours before serving.

Serves 8.

— Jodi Bart, Tasty Touring (tastytouring.com)