Before I left for grad school, my grandparents came down for a brief visit and my sister and her husband came up as well. I love when lots of people visit because it gives me an excuse to bake something. Because I'm missing the American autumn (and the apple pie that goes with it) I decided to make a Dutch Apple pie from a recipe I found on Epicurious (originally from Bon Appetit). I made my own crust because a) I like to make my own crust and b) I haven't perfected making my own crust yet. I think I make it TOO wet, because rolling it out when it's too dry is such a hassle. It has to be the perfect consistency, and I just haven't managed to get it right yet. And then I couldn't find my go-to crust recipe, so I used another crust recipe from my pumpkin pie that I'd never tried before (because I like my other crust recipe).
This recipe had 10 tablespoons of butter in it. TABLESPOONS. TEN! That is a crap-ton of butter. Particular when you add the 3 melted into apple-spice mixture and the 7 cut into the streusel topping. This was not a heart-healthy pie, people.
What transpired next is a perfect illustration of why you should always ALWAYS put a clean sheet tray on the rack underneath the one you'll place your pastry/buttergasm on. Which, thankfully, I did. Of course, it would've helped if I placed it just right. Because not 3 minutes into the first stage of pie-baking (at 400 degrees F), I smelled smoke and immediately opened all the windows and doors. And I caught it before my mom even smelled anything (I think working in a restaurant made my nose more sensitive, but that's just a theory).
But what can you do? There's no major damage to the pie itself, but the butter is just bubbling around the sides of the crust like a reverse Vesuvius. And the only thing you really can do is just wing it. I (carefully) wiped up the sides of the pie plate as best I could with a sponge, left the oven door open until it stopped smoking (mind you: if there is FIRE, keep the door CLOSED and turn the oven off. The lower amount of oxygen should lessen/put out the fire) and spent the rest of the baking time periodically running a spatula around the crevice between the pie and the plate to stem the tide.
The point is this: recipes are really sort of suggestions, ultimately. Read the comments. Had I not read the comments, I would have assumed that the pie needed the full time written on the recipe, rather than HALF of that (I went about an hour and 20 minutes). And when you see that the crust is browned and the crumble topping looks nice and toasty, turn the oven down, timer be-damned. When you think the pie should be done, pull it out and stick a knife into the apples to see if they're done (you should be able to stick the knife in easily, but they should hold their shape [if it's headed toward applesauce consistency, aka almost fuzzy looking, you've gone too far]).
And for the love of God, don't walk away from a new recipe. Don't assume that everything will be fine. Keep an eye on it, peek in on it, sniff the air. Even on your old standbys. Because shit happens, and it's a little different every time. And had I walked away to do something else I would've ended up wielding a fire extinguisher rather than a sponge.
And that would've sucked, because it was a damn tasty pie. I made it with just Granny Smiths and it wasn't too tart, the oat topping was delicious, and it held its shape really well (the only way I can think to describe it is that the apples didn't splooge out everywhere, which is kinda gross but true.)
