Scratch

This page is devoted to the creation of foods from scratch.  You certainly aren't going to find a bunch of recipes here that are quick fixes.  Instead everything may take a little longer, but is created from the most basic ingredients, and includes the most important component - love.

Mini Apple Pies

• Homemade Wontons
• 2 cups flour (I prefer white whole wheat flour)
• 1 egg
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup water
• 6-7 medium apples, peeled and chopped into small pieces tossed with sugar and cinnamon
• 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
• Sweet, crisp topping... mix together
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats

To make the wontons, mix together the salt, egg and flour in a mixer with the dough hook attached.  Slowly add the water, a tablespoon at a time, until a dough ball forms.  Remove the dough and wrap in plastic wrap.  Let dough rest for 30-60 minutes to let the gluten relax - this will improve the texture of the dough.

Next roll our the wontons until they are super thin (about 1/8th of an inch or less).  You can do this with a rolling pin, but I preferred to do it using my pasta roller as I had it hooked up already and it made quick work of this step.  Also, when you roll out dough you usually dust the rolling surface with some flour.  If you use some cornstarch or tapioca starch it will allow you to roll easily without making the dough super tough.

                                      

To roll dough out in the pasta roller, you will grab small (open-handful) size pieces at a time.

Always start the pasta roller at the widest setting (#1) and set your mixer to the slowest setting (stir).

You'll end up running the dough through the first setting a number of times until the texture is nice and smooth and not especially sticky.  Roll it through, then fold it over in 1/2 or 1/3's and roll it through again.

Once the dough is rolled out, cut it into pieces approximately 3x3".  You can store these for later if you wish by stacking them, but you'll want to place some cornstarch or tapioca starch between each to keep them from sticking together.  They can then be put in the refrigerator or frozen.

Place the wontons into a lightly greased muffin tin.  Then add your apples + sugar + cinnamon + flour concoction.  Finally, lightly sprinkle the crisp topping mixture over the top.   Bake in a preheated 350F oven for about 17-20 minutes until the top is bubbling and the edges of the wontons are light brown.

Enjoy!