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AS AMERICAN AS APPLE PIE Recipe | | International Desserts Recipe by Kevin Tighe |
| | INGREDIENTS | You will need a pie pan, a rolling pin, a large bowl, two
strong butter knives, a paring knife, and some waxed paper. Make the
pastry first. Refrigerate the pastry and the pie pan while you
prepare the filling.
Ingredients:
Pastry for 9"
two-crust pie:
2.5 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup lard , or
2/3 cup plus 2 Tablespoons of vegetable shortening
.25 cup water, with ice added
a very little more flour and ice water for rolling out
Filling: 6 cups prepared apple slices
.75 cups granulated sugar (in England, "
caster
sugar"
)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup flour, or 3 Tablespoons cornstarch
2 Tablespoons butter, if desired
| | METHOD | AMERICAN APPLE PIE
"Easy as pie" is a deceptive simile. It is easy to make a
mediocre pie. With a little attention to detail and practice, anyone
can learn to make a great pie. Please read through my directions
completely BEFORE you begin working. Plan to take 2 to 3 hours to
make your pie; only about 45 minutes is active working time. If your
home-made pie is not so special, serve it with some heavy cream or
ice cream spooned on top and do not apologize. "As we are" is the
soul of American hospitality. Try to figure what went wrong (you can
email me for advice) and correct it the next time.
Much love from your friend, Theresa,
Tacoma, Washington. (Washington is the main Apple growing region of the USA)
Directions:
1. Pastry. It is VERY IMPORTANT to keep the fat from
melting. Refrigerate your utensils until you are read to use them.
Keep your work surface as cool as you can. Your fingers are warm
enough to melt the fat and toughen your final product. The less your
fingers touch the pastry, the more tender the pastry will be. Some
(especially English women) have been taught to work the fat into the
flour with their fingers …… DON'T ….. that's how they get that very
high-density crust for the pork pies/hockey pucks you can buy in
English pubs. This no-touch technique for pies is exactly the
opposite of breadmaking. Because bread is made from yeast dough, the
more you work it, the better the product.
Measure the flour and salt into a bowl. Add the lard or
shortening. Using two strong butter knives, or a pastry blender,
cut the lard into the flour. When the flour and fat are well-mixed
but still coarse, STOP WORKING IT. If a few little lentil-sized
lumps of fat remain, that's fine.
Add the ice-water just a few drops at a time. Using two
strong forks, toss the water with the flour-fat mixture. Continue
adding water and tossing after each addition. Soon, the mixture
starts to adhere almost as if by magnetic attraction. DO NOT ADD
MORE WATER. Yes, the mixture will appear to be too dry …… it is just
right. Lightly pat the dough together with the forks. DO NOT
TOUCH WITH YOUR FINGERS.
Lay two large sheets of waxed paper on your counter. Using
the forks, divide the dough and place half onto each sheet of waxed
paper. While avoiding touching the dough with your fingers, wrap up
the waxed paper, and compress the dough gently. Refrigerate it at
least 15 minutes or up to an hour. If you need to refrigerate it
more than an hour, let it warm up a bit on the kitchen counter before
you start rolling it.
2. Filling. You may reduce the amount of spices if you
prefer a blander pie. Some Americans use a bit of allspice and ginger
as well as the spices I mentioned. Mix all the filling ingredients,
except butter. Make sure the flour or cornstarch all gets wet,
otherwise you may have a gluey cooked filling.
3. Roll out pastry. Wipe your counter with a damp rag to
moisten it a bit. Remove one ball of dough from the refrigerator
and unwrap it. See the magic of the power of flour to absorb
liquid? What appeared to be too dry back in step 1, should now look
just right. Place the dough onto the waxed paper on the counter,
cover with another large sheet of waxed paper. Still avoid touching
the pastry with your fingers. Using a rolling pin, roll the pastry
between the sheets of waxed paper, stroking from the center
outwards instead of rolling back and forth. (The rock & roll action
develops protein-gluten strands which toughen the pastry.) Push the
pin, not the pastry. You may pick up the bottom sheet of waxed paper
to reposition the pastry, and adjust the top sheet of waxed paper and
continue to roll out. If the dough seems too wet, you may add just a
little bit more flour, but avoid this because it toughens the
pastry. Roll the pastry to a circle about 2" larger than the
circumference of your pie pan.
Remove the top sheet of waxed paper. Invert the pie pan onto
the pastry. Using a sharp knife, cut the pastry about 2" larger than
the pan. Still using the waxed paper instead of your hands, turn the
pie pan and the pastry right side up. You should have an edge of
pastry larger than the pan. Gently push the pastry into place and
peel off the waxed paper. If the pastry breaks, overlap a pastry
scrap and "glue" into place with a tiny bit of ice water.
4. Fill. Gently fill the bottom crust with the apple
filling, and if desired, dot with butter. Get the second ball of
dough out of the refrigerator and repeat step #3 up to the point
where you have another large circle. Using the waxed paper, turn the
pastry onto the filled pie. Peel off the waxed paper. Now, dip
your fingers in ice water and fold the edges together towards the
center of the pie, to trap the filling. You may use pastry scraps
and a bit of ice water to build up a high, fluted edge, but avoid
handling the dough too much. Using a sharp knife, cut some steam
vents into the top pie crust, making a shape such as an outline of an
apple or a sheaf of wheat.
5. Bake. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 Celsius). The
oven must be HOT and the pie must be COLD. Place the pie pan in the
very center of the oven. Close the oven! The hot oven
air "surprises" the cold fat, melting it quickly and leaving air
pockets. That's how the flaky texture is created. Bake the pie for
45 to 50 minutes. Avoid opening the oven door to "check", because
each time you open it, you reduce the heat about by 20% , defeating
your purpose. The pie is done when it is light brown on top and the
juices are bubbling through the vents. The pie will continue to cook
in its own retained heat, so remove it from the oven when it is still
just a shade paler than you would prefer. Place on a vented surface
to cool.
6. Serve. Do not attempt to cut the pie sooner than one
hour after you remove it from the oven; you will break it up too
much. If you like your pie warm, it is best to time it to serve 2-3
hours after baking. Re-heating, especially in a microwave, will
wreck the texture.
7. Variations.
• Apple-Berry pies: Use 2/3 apple and 1/3 red or black currants
(Johannesbeeren), or chopped fresh cranberries, or blackberries.
• Caramel apple pie: use brown sugar instead of white sugar.
• "Dutch" apple pie: Cut extra-long steam vents into the top
crust. Ten minutes before the pie is finished baking, spoon ½ cup
heavy cream into the vents and continue baking.
• Not enough sugar in the houseNULL Use up to ¾ cup jam or
preserves such as raspberry, grape, or quince.
• As in the North of England, serve plain apple pie with a
slice of cheddar cheese. All the Tiltons say, "Pie without cheese is
like a kiss without a squeeze."
******************** Special Notes
Use all-purpose, unbleached flour. If you have a choice,
flour made from soft wheat is better for pie crusts because it
contains less gluten. Soft-wheat flour is sometimes labeled "pastry
flour". In Europe, Hungarian pastry flour is the very best choice
for pie crusts.
The fat is the most important part of the crust. The best
result is from rendered pork lard: "Schweineschmaltz", but not
salted, not smoked. If you need instructions on how to render lard
out of fresh pork fat, I can tell you that, too, but I'm trying to
keep this down to a pie recipe instead of a master's thesis. When I
was in Europe, I made very good pie crusts from rendered goose or
duck fat: "Gänseschmalz", which is commonly available at Spar and
Alpha-Beta, in small plastic tubs. I would not use goose fat in the
USA unless I was sure the source was a hormone-free poultry farm. I
have made excellent pie crusts from any supermarket brand of solid
100% vegetable shortening, without any added flavor or color. I do
not like the "Butter-flavored Crisco", but "chacun á son goût". Joe
Meyer suggested making oil crusts from vegetable oil, which can give
a tender but not flaky crust. Do not think you can use butter for
your pie crusts and still obtain a "home-made American" result.
Butter, especially European high-score butter, has a higher moisture
content than lard or solid vegetable shortening. Butter pastry is
patée brisée ……… not just French, but downright pretentious.
Use tart, flavorful apples which will keep their shape after
baking. Wash them well, then peel the skin off, then slice thin.
Work quickly so the sliced apples do not get oxidized and turn brown,
or slice the apples into a bowl of cold water with a little lemon
juice added. Drain well before mixing in the other filling
ingredients.
Apple skins have a lot of flavor. They also contain many
nutrients and pectin, a fiber used as a thickening agent, which is
also good for human digestion. If you have apples with nice skin,
especially red skin, you can use them as my Grandma did. ("Now, Terri-
Beth, remember that you are paying the same price per pound for the
apple skins ………and we do not want to throw money away.") First trim
off any blemishes and discard them. Then continue peeling and
reserve the unblemished skin. Chop the reserved skins with a
cleaver until they are very fine, or put the apple skins into a
blitzhacker (mini-chopper) and chop until very fine. Add the chopped
apple skins to the pie filling; you will be adding flavor, color,
nutrition, and thickening. This is also a neat trick for making
applesauce.
Cornstarch is called "corn flour" in England. Cornstarch
has about double the thickening power of flour. Acid from apples,
red currants, etc., tends to diminish flour's thickening power, but
cornstarch keeps its thickening power even in highly acidic foods.
Do not use arrowroot in a pie filling. Arrowroot breaks down after a
few hours, leaving your pie filling very liquid.
Pie pans. I prefer glass pie pans because they are non-
reactive to acid, they intensify the oven heat, and it is easy to
check whether the bottom crust is getting brown. I have also had
great success with enamel-coated cast iron pans such as Le Creuset.
A round pie pan is not essential. I have used oval and rectangular
au gratin dishes. Every Thanksgiving, I bring pies made in a
rectangular lasagna pan to my Godparents' house. A pan 13" x 9" x 2"
will hold a double recipe of pie. Fr. Anthony first asked me, "Why
did you make square piesNULL" and I answered, "Now, Fr., you are Greek,
you should know that pi R square ……." Now, that's part of the every-
year ritual.
If you want to give a pie as a gift, line the glass pan with
heavy-duty aluminum foil, leaving 3" extensions all around. Assemble
pie and bake as usual. When the pie is cooled, use the extensions to
lift it whole out of the pan and wrap it in a second sheet of foil.
Enjoy!
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