Apple Pandowdy and Epic Failures

It is very hard for me (and anyone really) to say I'm sorry, admit I am wrong...but even more so, to succumb to epic failures in the kitchen.

Stay with me on this one...it's a doozy!

Many years ago my husband and I got addicted to the HBO mini series "John Adams" with Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney.  You MUST watch this, it is fantastic.

One of the lines from Abigail Adams is, "To be good, and do good, is the whole duty of man comprised in a few words."   LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this line and advice.  Ever since I heard that, (and my kids will tell you this), that has been my mantra to them, if not every day, than at least once a week..."Be good and do good".

Well one day, I ended up down the cyber rabbit hole (I'm sure you know what I'm referring to), and learned that Abigail Adams was famous for her Apple Pandowdy.  "The word dowdy comes from the Middle English "doude", which means exactly what your're thinking.  Shabby, messy, inelegant."  Who knew?  Abigail's Pandowdy made use of the abundance of apples in the region.

This sounded like a wonderful new recipe to try out...

I got everything together and knocked it out.  As I was putting it in the oven, I realized that I accidentally grabbed the salt and sprinkled it all over the puff pastry, instead of the sugar!

I scraped off as much salt as I could and baked it off to see if it would work...it didn't!  It definitely didn't!  I was so upset I wanted to cry.  My containers for the sugar and salt are not even remotely similar.  My head was obviously somewhere else that morning.

I had one more puff pastry sheet left, so I gave it another try....

I took all the "over salted" puff pastry pieces off the first batch and tossed them away.  I scooped up all the apple filling and placed it in a cast iron skillet.

Then, I cut out larger pieces of the pastry and baked it off, per directions.

I'm happy to report, it was saved and I learned a very valuable lesson(s)!

Apple Pandowdy
Courtesy of Bon Appetit

6 Tbl unsalted butter
4 pounds Pink Lady and/or Granny Smith apples
2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
3 Tbl all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
1 Tbl vanilla extract
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 lemon
1 package frozen puff pastry, thawed by covering pastry sheet with plastic and leaving at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Cook 6 Tablespoons butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, swirling often, until bubbling and golden, about 5 minutes; set aside.

Prepare your apples: Using a vegetable peeler, remove peel from apples.  Stand them upright and slice down along core, working all the way around to remove big loves of flesh.  Cut lobes lengthwise into 1" pieces.  Discard peel and cores.  Transfer apples into a large bowl.

Add 2/3 cup dark brown sugar, 3 Tablespoons flour, 1 Tablespoon vanilla, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon salt to bowl with apples.

Using a microplane or fine rasp grater, grate zest of 1/2 lemon over apples.  Cut lemon in half and squeeze juice from zested half over apples, catching any seeds. 

Toss apple mixture until combined, then transfer to a shallow 3-qt baking dish.  Drizzle all but 2 Tablespoons brown butter over apples.

Dust cutting board with a light coating of flour and unfold puff pastry on floured surface.  Dust top with flour.  Cut puff pastry into irregular 1" pieces.

Arrange pieces of puff pastry over apples, overlapping but spreading to cover almost completely.  Brush pastry with remainng brown butter.  Springkle with granulated sugar.

Bake pandowdy until pastry is puffed and golden around edges, 25-30 minutes.  Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue to bake until juices are thick and bubbling and pastry is brown all over, 30-35 minutes longer.

Using a spoon, press pastry down into warm juices (but don't submerge); let cool slightly.

Serve pandowdy warm with ice cream.

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