Celebrate Pi Day with a Scrumptious Apple Pie from Betty Crocker!

Servings: 8

Ingredients: 

Find more recipes at Betty Crocker.com

Pastry:

• 2 cups Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons shortening
• 4 to 6 tablespoons cold water

Filling:

• 1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 8 cups thinly sliced peeled tart apples (8 medium)
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine

Directions:

1. In medium bowl, mix 2 cups flour and 1 teaspoon salt. Cut in shortening, using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through ingredients in opposite directions), until particles are size of small peas. Sprinkle with cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and pastry almost cleans side of bowl (1 to 2 teaspoons more water can be added if necessary).
2. Gather pastry into a ball. Divide in half; shape into 2 flattened rounds on lightly floured surface. Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate about 45 minutes or until dough is firm and cold, yet pliable. This allows the shortening to become slightly firm, which helps make the baked pastry more flaky. If refrigerated longer, let pastry soften slightly before rolling.
3. Heat oven to 425°F. With floured rolling pin, roll one pastry round into round 2 inches larger than upside-down 9-inch glass pie plate. Fold pastry into fourths; place in pie plate. Unfold and ease into plate, pressing firmly against bottom and side.
4. In large bowl, mix sugar, 1/4 cup flour, the cinnamon, nutmeg and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Stir in apples until well mixed. Spoon into pastry-lined pie plate. Cut butter into small pieces; sprinkle over filling. Trim overhanging edge of pastry 1/2 inch from rim of plate.
5. Roll other round of pastry into 10-inch round. Fold into fourths and cut slits so steam can escape. Unfold top pastry over filling; trim overhanging edge 1 inch from rim of plate. Fold and roll top edge under lower edge, pressing on rim to seal; flute as desired. Cover edge with 2-to 3-inch strip of foil to prevent excessive browning.
6. Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust, removing foil for last 15 minutes of baking. Serve warm if desired.

Expert Tips

• For a pretty glazed top crust, brush this—and any other double crust pie—with milk or cream and sprinkle with sugar before baking.
• Jump-start your pie baking by using Betty Crocker® pie crust mix. Just add water and stir; the dough is ready in 5 minutes.
• Start with three 20-ounce cans of sliced apples, drained, instead of using fresh apples, and you’ll shave about half of the prep time off this recipe.

Nutrition Information:

Serving Size: 1 Serving Calories480 ( Calories from Fat260 ), Total Fat29 g (Saturated Fat6 g, ), Cholesterol0mg Sodium330 mg Total Carbohydrate51 g (Dietary Fiber3 g ), Protein4 g ; % Daily Value*: Vitamin A4%; Vitamin C6%; Calcium0%; Iron10%; Exchanges: *Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

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Spanakopita – Greek Spinach Pie

Photo by All Recipes.com

Original recipe makes 1 – 9×9 inch pan

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 bunch green onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 pounds spinach, rinsed and chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 8 sheets phyllo dough
• 1/4 cup olive oil

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly oil a 9×9 inch square baking pan.
2. Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute onion, green onions and garlic, until soft and lightly browned. Stir in spinach and parsley, and continue to saute until spinach is limp, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together eggs, ricotta, and feta. Stir in spinach mixture. Lay 1 sheet of phyllo dough in prepared baking pan, and brush lightly with olive oil. Lay another sheet of phyllo dough on top, brush with olive oil, and repeat process with two more sheets of phyllo. The sheets will overlap the pan. Spread spinach and cheese mixture into pan and fold overhanging dough over filling. Brush with oil, then layer remaining 4 sheets of phyllo dough, brushing each with oil. Tuck overhanging dough into pan to seal filling.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until golden brown. Cut into squares and serve while hot.

Celebrate Pi Day – March 14th!

Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th (3/14) around the world. Pi is the 16th letter of the Greek Alphabet.

Pi (Greek letter “π”) is the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant — the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter — which is approximately 3.14159. It is a transcendental number, meaning it will repeat infinitely without ever appearing exactly the same. Pi has been calculated to over 51 billion decimal places with the use of computers. However Pi is usually calculated to 3 digits, 3.14. Therefore, March 14 is Pi day.

Pi has been calculated to over one trillion digits beyond its decimal point. As an irrational and transcendental number, it will continue infinitely without repetition or pattern. While only a handful of digits are needed for typical calculations, Pi’s infinite nature makes it a fun challenge to memorize, and to computationally calculate more and more digits.

 

History of Pi

By measuring circular objects, it has always turned out that a circle is a little more than 3 times its width around. In the Old Testament of the Bible (1 Kings 7:23), a circular pool is referred to as being 30 cubits around, and 10 cubits across. The mathematician Archimedes used polygons with many sides to approximate circles and determined that Pi was approximately 22/7. The symbol (Greek letter “π”) was first used in 1706 by William Jones. A ‘p’ was chosen for ‘perimeter’ of circles, and the use of π became popular after it was adopted by the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler in 1737. In recent years, Pi has been calculated to over one trillion digits past its decimal. Only 39 digits past the decimal are needed to accurately calculate the spherical volume of our entire universe, but because of Pi’s infinite & patternless nature, it’s a fun challenge to memorize, and to computationally calculate more and more digits.

 

GEOMETRY

The number pi is extremely useful when solving geometry problems involving circles. Here are some examples:

The area of a circle.

A = πr2

Where ‘r’ is the radius (distance from the center to the edge of the circle). Also, this formula is the origin of the joke “Pies aren’t square, they’re round!”

 

The volume of a cylinder.

V = πr2h

To find the volume of a rectangular prism, you calculate length × width × height. In that case, length × width is the area of one side (the base), which is then multiplied by the height of the prism. Similarly, to find the volume of a cylinder, you calculate the area of the base (the area of the circle), then multiply that by the height (h) of the cylinder.