How to make #mmmpie and influence people

I spent a lot of time yesterday baking for my beautiful friend Nic's Valentine's Day birthday party. Creating edible delectibles is how I show my (mostly) offline friends how much I love them, and last night I loved them as much as 8 mini hand pies and 1 full sized pie of granny smith brown sugar oatmeal goodness. That's a lot of love.

These pies rocked it so hard I had to hashtag it. #mmmpie indeed!

I don't know about you, but I tweet while enjoying the company of my non-tweeting, non-bloggy friends. Not only are they good for hilarious @overheard tweets, they like the thrill of knowing my tweets are seen by hundreds of people. I know this because when one of them has made an ass of themselves, they'll helpfully say, "you should tweet that!" in the hopes that I will.

Yes, they're used to this ritual of mine, of the careful choosing 140 characters (or less) my latest attempt to answer that omnipotently addictive twitter question: what are you doing right now?

Editorial note: Yes, omnipotently is a word.

Recently these dear flesh friends have become evermore curious about this "social media thing" I do. Conversations range from how to avoid that overwhelmed feeling that's brought on by the bajillion (...and one...and counting) sparkly social media tools out there; how to figure out FacebookTwitterFlickrLinkedIn; and how to find people who share a love for black and while movies that feature accordion-playing nuns with tattoos. (I have very interesting flesh friends.)

And I love hearing their questions! It's incredibly helpful in ensuring I'm covering the right things in my Social Media in Real Life class. Even on the Social Media 101 level there are a huge number of topics to discuss that can help connect people with the tools the need to tell their story, sell their idea, promote their cause.

I'll be writing more on the basics of social media on Long Lunch PDX, and do my best to share relevant information about using social media in real life.

Just remember to wait one hour after eating #mmmpie before you swim in the online social pool.

mediaChick's #mmmpie

Single crust:

1 3/4 cup of flour
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1 1/4 cup of chilled, cubed non-salted butter
4-5 tablespoons of ice water

Apple filling:

6 large, 8 medium, or 10 small granny smith apples (peeled, cored and chopped in medium-sized chunks)
1/2 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar (plus extra)
1/2 cup oatmeal (plus extra)
2 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoon of non-salted butter (plus extra)

Making the crust:

In a large bowl or pastry mixer combine flour, sugar and salt. Add butter cubes and stir gently, coating the cubes with the flour mixture. Throughout the entire crust-making process, try to handle the dough as little as possible.

Use a pastry blending tool or the pastry mixer to incorporate the butter throughout the flour. It is important not to let the butter get too warm, otherwise you'll have a flour-butter paste. This is bad because it makes rolling the dough out a sticky, frustrating endeavor. If your butter is getting too mushy, put the concoction in the fridge for 10 minutes until it behaves again.

When the largest of the butter cubes are the size of peas, add ice water two tablespoons at a time and keep mixing. Keep and eye out for when the dough pulls together, but is not super sticky. When that happens, you're done mixing. (There should be little pieces of butter visible throughout the dough.) Gently shape the dough into a flat disk 4-5 inches in diameter with floured hands. Wrap it in plastic and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes while you're making the apple pie filling.

Making the filling:

Put the apple chunks in a large bowl. Mix 2 tablespoons of flour, the white and brown sugars and the oatmeal together and then stir it into the apples. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium-low heat in a very large pot. Pour the apple mixture in the pot, coat it with the melted butter, and put the lid on the pot. Stir occasionally, for 10 minutes, or until the largest apple chunks are only slightly crunchy and the smallest chunks are soft. Take it off the burner, take of the lid, and let it cool while you shape the crust.

Shaping the crust:

Set your oven to 400 degrees. Take out the dough chilling in the fridge, unwrap it, and let it sit on a floured surface for 5 minutes. With a floured rolling pin, gently roll on the dough once and then turn it 45 degrees. Roll it again, turn it again. (This technique keeps the dough's thickness uniform.) Do this until you have a round-ish shape 10 inches in diameter. Fold the dough in half, then again. Place the folded dough in a pie dish and unfold the dough so it's a full circle again, then press the dough gently on all sides of the dish.

Pour the apple filling into the pie plate, spreading the mixture evenly. With the filling keeping the dough in place, cut the dough around the plate edge, leaving no more than 1 inch hanging off the edge.

Next, do something interesting with the pie crust, around the edge. If you've keep the dough's temperature cool, the dough should be easy to mold into something pretty.Try folding the dough under and then pressing it down with a fork. Or try fluting it (which is much easier than you'd think).

Sprinkle a mixture of some brown sugar and oatmeal over the top of the apple filling. Dot generously with butter. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 400 degrees. If your oven runs hot, use tin foil (shiny side down) and cover the pie crust edge.

Enjoy!

Let's go steady!