HELP! Need recipe for "canned apple" pie

[Professor Marvel]

Greetings My Good Netizens -

I need some help, please

I am not a cook. I am just a poor dumb retired engineer/computer weenie.

I desparately Need a recipe for "canned apple" pie

Online recipes are not helpful at all. No troubleshooting pages.

Worse, they do not progress in a logical step-by-step linear order.
eg: they almost all read like this

to make this lovely frothy blah blah ( 3 pages of BS) simply
1) collect the ingrediants ( f'in duh)
2) mix all the dry indrediants in a bowl ( ok which ones are they? and quantities, why do I have to go back to the ingrdt list? )
2a)add a pinch of blah   ( wtf is a quantitaive measurement for a pinch ?)
3) add the wet indregiants ( ok is butter wet or dry? can you please put the quantities here as well as in the list?)
4) now take THE PREVIOUSLY PREPARED MAGIC CRAP that you made the night before and ....

with no mention of prep time, should the ingrediants be room temp, is "fridge temp" ok?,
or what substitutions work, and how to substitute, what happens if I melt the butter,
or how to troubleshoot when it's too thick, too runny, not setting up in the oven, etc etc...

oh and ALTITUDE. I am at 7200 ft above sea level. If a storm is coming thru and the barometric pressure drops,
what "stuff" is affected, besides cakes rising ( they don;t anyway baking GLuten Free  ) and water boiling temp?

SO

I used to make a rectangular apple pie for holidays using a "gluten free, egg free, soy free, nut free, corn free"
crust of my own devising, (starting with Bisqwik GF Pancake mix) and Krakovia Apple Filling in a jar.

Well,  the Karkovia went missing, can no longer find it, and Last year I used up my last 4 jars.

I have a hard time using fresh fruit, cuz, DAMMIT JIM I AM AN ENGINEER NOT A TREE SURGEON COOK.

I have a source of "safe" canned apples (no starch, gluten, corn syrup, soy, nuts etc) ,
but when I tried to make the pie for T day it the filling mix was  totally runny.

I followed the recipe on the can to the letter.
of course it did not work...

It tasted OK but .... and Mrs Marvel could not abide the looks of it...


PLEASE HELP ME!

I AM GOING NUTS DOING EXPERIMENTAL COOKING AND THROWING OUT FAILURES.

yhs
prof nutcake

[Delmonico]

I will call my oldest daughter in the morning and talk to her, she is the gluten free wizard, I need to learn a bit since both kids have that problem but I haven't got into the baking yet.

[Professor Marvel]

Thanks Del, I appreciate all the help I can get.

prf mrvl

[Delmonico]

Ain't got a hold of here yet.

[Mogorilla]

One thing I know about GF baking is the need for a binder, a small amount xanthum gum is a great help.

[Professor Marvel]

One thing I know about GF baking is the need for a binder, a small amount xanthum gum is a great help.

thanks mog!
i saw it in ingrediants lists , but ....

bobs red mill is one of my "goto" GF suppliers, and by gum he has it:

https://www.bobsredmill.com/xanthan-gum.html
"Enjoy Gluten Freedom®! Xanthan Gum is an essential ingredient for gluten free baking. It acts as an emulsifier and a binder, and adds volume to gluten free breads, cookies, cakes, and other baked goods."

I will pick some up while i am out today!

yhs
prof marvel

[Mogorilla]

It pops up in all kinds of places.   My first job out of college was a QC chemist at a food additives plant, primarily additives for kosher baking.  Not only did I get a killer matzo ball soup recipe, I did pick up odds and ends.   It did give me enough insight to start making even more of my own food.   emulsifiers do get used a lot.   

[Professor Marvel]

KOSHER!

many kosher recipes translate easily to GF!

got my Xanadu xanthan gum (sounds like a Tibetan Buddhist candy...)

yhs
prof marvel

[Mogorilla]

This is perfect for the Festival of Lights, or just a cold winter night.   Rabbis would sit in the lab while waiting to inspect the facility.  I got to know several of them.   One was a character, out of New York and boy could he talk.   We often talked food and me learning more kosher nuances.  He had an opinion on Mazto Ball Soup.  His mother's was the best and did not have these gigantic rough balls that delis put in their soup so as to have a reason not to give you much else.    I make this about once a year, usually closer to the Passover/Easter season, but just made it 2 weeks ago.  I am betting it will help ward off Covid, ha!

Matzo Ball soup
2 cups course matzo meal   (best made from the crackers) (there are gluten free versions)
6 tablespoons chicken fat
6 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons of minced fresh parsley
~1/2 cup fine matzo meal
~12 cups chicken broth (see below)
1 whole chicken (skinned and boned)
4 carrots
4 stalks celery
2 onions

Directions
1.   Skin and bone a chicken.  Reserve the meat in the fridge.  Roast the skin and bones in a 400 degree oven until browned.   (about 30 minutes, but keep an eye on it, do not let skin burn)
2.   Add browned bones/skin to a large pot, pour off any rendered fat from the oven pan and reserve.   Add about 3-4 quarts of water to the pot, add 2 cut carrots, 2 cut celery stocks, the peel of 1 lemon (removed carefully so as not to get any of the white pith, yellow only!) 1 chopped onion.  Simmer for 4 hours.
3.   Drain, reserving liquid, toss the vegetables/bones
4.   Chill the stock overnight.   Next day, skim off the solidified fat and place with the reserved fat from the roasting.   (place 6 tablespoons of this in the freezer)
5.   Bring stock to a simmer.  Add chopped chicken meat, chopped onion, chopped carrot and chopped celery (the remaining 2 of each not used in stock.)
6.   Add course matzo meal to a large bowl. Add water to cover (if you had an excess of stock this is even better) allow to soak for a few minutes, until soft. Drain off excess liquid.
7.   Stir in chilled chicken fat to drained matzos. Mix in eggs, salt and pepper to taste, and parsley.  (think of this like making a biscuit or dumpling because you are, so do not overwork)
8.   Mix in just enough fine matzo meal to make mixture hold together. Roll one 1.5 "size matzo ball. Place matzo ball in the boiling water to test the mixture. The ball must rise to the top of the water and not break apart. If it does not rise, then too much matzo meal was added. In this case, add another beaten egg to the mixture and try again. When desired consistency is reached, roll all of mixture into 1.5" balls. These are not the gigantic ones you see in delis.   These are light and perfect to be picked up on a spoon.
9.   When chicken and vegetables are tender, serve hot bowl of broth/chicken/vegetables with several matzo balls.   

[Professor Marvel]

Firstly, Thanks for the recipe, MOG! I will have to try it!
BTW A scientific analysis of "from scratch" chicken soup revealed several natural antibiotic agents!

Second, thanks to everyone for the help with the "soupy pie".

I took the advice, I followed the recipe EXACTLY, except
I minimized the liquid, added MORE sugar and substituted Arrowroot for cornstarch.
It set up very nicely after baking and came out very tastey!

I followed that with a modified pumpkin pie:
1) replaced condensed milk with thick canned coconut milk (plus 1/4 cup brown sugar)
2) replaced the 2 eggs with powdered "egg replacer"
3) used 1/2 cup brown sugar instead of 1/2 cup sugar
4) added all of Mrs Marvel's pumpkin pie spices...

I got smart and tasted the unbaked pie blend and we decided to add that extra 1/4 cup sugar and a 1/4 tsp allspice.
the mixture was nice and thick, poured into the crust, baked for 45min. It was still wiggly, but set up well in the fridge
and actually tastes good!

Thanks to you all Mrs Marvel gets 2  nice dessert pies for the Christmas feast & weekend!

all the best
Prof Marvel

[River City John]

We invited Marie Callender to dinner last night to enjoy one of her pecan pies after dinner. Joined by coffee laced with some whiskey augmented Irish Cream.

It was delicious, but I'm betting surely not as good as your pies, Professor.