Food on Friday: Dehydrated Apple Pie Biscuits

My church really encourages everyone to have food storage. It's not just for potential disasters, but it's good to have it around in case of any emergency. We've benefited from it at various times, like when Bob didn't have work for a while during our first year of marriage. We literally lived off of our food storage for over two months straight. It was such a life saver!

However, if you have food storage, you're supposed to rotate through it. Even dehydrated food has a shelf life, and it's usually 10 years or less.

So, I found these dehydrated apples in our food storage.

And then I ate one.

It was stale. No, it was beyond stale. It was like chewing on sweetened tree bark + flavorless beef jerky.

I hated to just throw it out though. I hate wasting stuff. That meant it was time to get creative.

Most dehydrated things can be re-hydrated. So I started thinking about what I could use sliced apples for.
Tarts. But I just made tarts a few weeks ago.
Pies. But I don't feel like making pie.
Pastries. Mmmmm... I do love pastries...

The most common dough that I know how to make takes me back to my roots. I'm a southern girl with a darn good biscuit recipe. So I thought I'd try apple pie filled biscuits... Made from dehydrated apple slices.

I soaked a handful of dehydrated apple slices in hot water for an hour. I used just enough water to cover them.

Once they were all soft again I added sugar, cinnamon, and ground cloves. (I failed to measure. I always do this type of thing by taste. Sorry.) I wanted the liquid that was left in them to thicken. I'm familiar with two thickening agents: corn starch and flour. I don't have any corn starch, so flour it was! I added a heaping tablespoon of flour to the mix too.

(Tip: If you're adding flour to a mostly water- or liquid-based mix like this, it's best to mix it into a small amount of water first and then add the flour-water mixture in, otherwise it congeals and turns into chunks of flour that stick to your pan and food.)


I turned on the stove burner to medium and let the apples start cooking a bit. The water started boiling and gradually got thicker. It took 40-45 minutes to cook down to a consistency that I liked. I tried it, and oh my goodness!! So tasty!

Then I made the biscuit dough. Almost every time I teach anyone how to make southern biscuits from scratch, they always over-knead the dough. It's not yeast based and it's supposed to be fluffy. Kneading it more than necessary makes it denser and chewier. Nobody wants to eat a biscuit that has the consistency of a rock. So when you knead biscuit dough, you only do so lightly, folding it 2 to 3 times--basically just to get the last of the dry ingredients absorbed into it.

I wrapped a spoonful of the re-hydrated apple filling inside of a little bit of biscuit dough. 

Baked them for 12 minutes.

And then I had apple pie filled biscuits.

Delicious.

(Like my son's sweet little face.)