Our neighbor is big into owls, I seem to have fallen into same direction, I like these magnificent creatures myself as well, they fly over our back yard looking for a meal once in a while.
It was Jeff’s birthday so I wanted to give him an owl(obviously), last year I made Owl Cake for him.
I slightly downsized this year, not having lots of time on my hands, I settled for a cute Owl Apple Pie.
Owl Apple Pie
Pie Pastry
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
3tbl whole wheat pastry flour*
2tbl brown sugar
1/4tsp salt
8tbl chilled butter, cut into small cubes(114grams)
1/4cup iced water
* you can omit whole wheat if you don’t have it or don’t want to use it.
Filling
1 large apple,peeled, cored and cubed into small pieces, I used about 1 1/4 cup of finely chopped apple,
3tbl brown sugar,or to taste
2tsp flour
pinch of nutmeg
1/2tsp cinnamon
Lemon zest of 1/3 lemon
1tbl lemon juice
Topping
1tbl butter
1tsp granulated sugar
1egg
Make Crust
In a medium bowl combine flours and salt and stir until combined, add chilled pieces of butter and either use pastry blender or your fingers, work the butter until it resembles coarse meal, add ice water and stir just until dough is moist and comes somewhat together. Don’t knead it. It is okay to see small pieces of butter in the dough. Wrap the dough into the plastic wrap and chill for one hour.
Filling
Combine all the ingredients in the bowl and set aside, taste
Preheat oven to 400F line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Make the Owl
Divide pastry dough in half .One half will be used to make the bottom and the other one the top of the owl.
Roll one half fairly thin, I roll my dough between too pieces of parchment paper to prevent sticking,I flour both sides lightly. Cut out shape similar to this(picture below), this piece will be the bottom of your owl, place the cut out piece onto the baking sheet.
Using a small round cutter cut out as many round as you can from the left over dough that is already rolled out.If needed gather scraps and re-roll the dough and make more small rounds, if you don’t have a cutter, use a knife and cut out small triangles, these will be used to make feathers.
Put as much filling as you can fit onto the large piece of dough that you cut out and placed on the baking sheet.
Take the other half of the dough and roll it out thinly, you want it to be larger then the piece that you just put the apple filling on, you don’t have to shape it or cut into any shape.
Gently brush edges of the owl bottom with some water and place the large piece or rolled out pastry dough on top of the apples, overlapping the the existing owl bottom. Using your fingers, press the dough together where the bottom dough meets the top one, cut around with a knife and reserve the remaining dough.
Cut out 2 circles – for eyes, using a cake crimper or a tooth pick make lines in the circular direction on both circle cut outs
Using a rose petal or a tear shape cuter make 2 ears. Attach them to the owl with a bit of water
Cut out a triangle for the peak.
Layer the feathers from bottom to the top, from feet area to face area.
Once you have all the details, cut into the dough using a small knife, just below the eyes, brush the whole owl with beaten egg and sprinkle with 1tsp of sugar, place small pieces of butter on top.
Bake for 15-20 minutes.
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