Brown Butter Pop Tarts 4 #PiePartyLive

I’ve been working like a baking maniac towards the new book’s deadline and I haven’t had much, if any, time to bake for my friends and family. This always makes me a little sad. No. It makes me very, very sad. Thankfully my friends Ken at HungryRabbitNYC and Jackie at DivathateatNY came up with a brilliant idea to host a whole slew of us in NYC for a Pie Party aka #PiePartyLive . Admission? Come with a pie in hand otherwise the door will stay closed. How great is that? I was so excited to be, finally, baking for fun that I felt like the party was arranged just for me. I was THAT excited.

But, like with any good news, there comes a glitch..there’s always a glitch. It turns out my ‘bum’ shoulder was actually a fractured one that I’d been living and working with for 3 weeks. Sure, it hurt… a lot.. but heck, I’m tough. Well.. the doctor read me the riot act, put me in a sling and said “Don’t move your freakin’ arm, Abby, for 1 week” or, more doctorly words to that effect. .And here I was staring at #PiePartyLive. Despondant at the thought of missing the chance to see old friends, meet new ones and eat a sh*&&^t-ton of delicious pies, I enlisted/recruited/begged my son to do some baking for me.

Now, Alex is no stranger to the kitchen.. he cooks and cooks well (I’ll tell you about his meals during the black out another time) and he also bakes (genetic predisposition, I suppose). His “cinnabon” rolls are legendary and he makes a mean Apple Pie so the kid has some skills and I trusted that he could take on my new recipe for Brown Butter Pop Tarts with Apple Butter Filling. Disclaimer: before you get too excited about the recipe, I’m going to ask your patience. It’s one from the new book dropping 9/12 and my divine and talented editor, Carolyn, would be very, very sad if I leaked the recipe an d the last thing I want is a sad editor.  Trust me, this recipe is worth the wait and I have a testimony from the sampler folks at #PiePartLive to attest to just that.

Making due with  (not great) pictures — taken with my old iphone because I couldn’t hold the real camera –  let me lead you through the process with the self-proclaimed “Baking’s Bad Boy”. Seriously, he had me doubled over with his “schtick”.. too funny.

So here’s “Bad” making the dough.. that’s right, it’s a one-pot dough:

With the dough set aside to cool enough to roll, “Bad” sauteed up the apples with honey and butter until “they tasted like velvet”.. or so said “Bad”. While the apples cooled in their skillet, he moved onto the rolling and shaping. As I said, he’s got some skills but with this dough, he was going to need to take it to the next level and he didn’t disappoint. I know I’m the mom here but seriously… Bad is sooo good. I mean, take a look-see at these gorgeous mini pop tarts. He even used my exact-o knife and ruler — I just love precision baking.

So, with Alex’s help, I was ready to take on #PiePartyLive and I’m so glad I did. I carried my pies down to Rodeo Bar on the east side of NYC (thank you Rodeo – you guys rocked it) on a spectacular October day and had so much fun. There were about 65 pie lovers and at least one pie per person though some were over-achievers (you know who you are Pam.. Ken.. Jackie and more)  in attendance and we had a blast. Eating, chatting, connecting and reconnecting and eating some more was the task at hand and I think we rocked it.

Of course, food bloggers being food bloggers, lots of  great pix of the pies as well as ones of Rodeo’s delicious eats  were taken so go check out Ken and Jackie’s posts for links to all the pix and other recaps… don’t miss a single one.

And in between bites, Ken & Jackie gave away some wonderful prizes — inclduing a few of my books. Who doesn’t love a giveaway? I was only slightly miffed that I didn’t win.. must have been an oversight ; -)

There’s a rumor that #PiePartyLive will take on Stone Fruit this summer.. Don’t tell “Bad” but I’ll have my arm back and he’ll be out of a job… but hopefully he’ll have his own “real” job by then too..

Thanks Again Ken and Jackie for such a fun day.. can’t wait for the next one!

A

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