does anything say “Farm” like pie?
Hand pie, fry pie, stack pie, fruit pie, cream pie, depression pie…. is there anything more humble yet sublime than homemade pie?
There is nothing that better represents how, with a little ingenuity and elbow grease, pleasure and love can come from the kitchen even when times are tough. Today, as we near October, Pennsylvania is thick into apple season, and my wild trees have been giving up their fruit. This year was a particularly good one for all the fruits here, for which we are all grateful.
I used to get all cheffy and elaborate when making pies and preserves, but now that I have come to savor the difference between supermarket produce and the things I seek out from local farms and forests, I want to keep the focus on the particulars of the fruit, and keep the seasonings simple.
My wild apples are unlike those from the orchard, being a little different in texture and very intense in flavor. They are also as wild as can be, so have odd skin color and blemishes, which do not bother me at all. For baking, I like a mix of varieties – which always makes a pie more interesting. I like a crisp and tart variety mixed with a good Golden delicious or two. Delicious apples have gotten a bad rap after years of being the apple favorite of elementary schools, hospitals, and convenience stores, which is entirely unfair. A good Delicious apple has a juicy-sweet spiciness, and a texture that bakes up soft and tender. I was pretty delighted to discover a wild tree that has knobby, small, very seedy fruit with a Golden Delicious flavor, though they are kind of a pain to peel and woud take a ton to make a full pie.
I do pack my pie with lots of fruit and little else, and stick to crusts made from fats like butter, lard, or a combo. This is a very basic recipe, adapted from my Mom’s McCall’s Cook Book, in which I have discovered a surprising number of new-old ideas. It can be easily adapted to pretty much any fruit, adapting a little for straining the excess liquid when using juicier fruits – I find 1/2 cup of liquid is the perfect amount to form a softly gelled, not runny fruit filling.
Bonus: If you strain off excess fruit liquid, remember to make some fruit shrub using your remaining vinegar water from the pie crust.
So, here’s your next weekend plan – Hit your farmer’s market for apples & snacks, go home & bake yourself a pie, go for a tramp in the woods, come home, enjoy pie. Best of all, Sunday morning pie for breakfast is the best…
Old Fashioned Apple Pie
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- In a small bowl, combine sugar, cinnamon, clove, flour, and salt, mixing well.
- Preheat oven to 375°F, arrange rack in the center of oven.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll one of your pastry disks into an 11-inch circle. Line your pie pan and set aside.
- Add your sugar mixture to your sliced apples in a large bowl, tossing lightly to combine well
- Turn the apples and spice into the prepared pie crust, mounding highest in center. with a knife, cut small chunks of butter and dot evenly atop the apples
- Roll out the remaining pastry disk into an 11-inch circle. Gently place on top of pie, trimming excess using a sharp knife so the top crust is very slightly larger than the ecge.
- Gently roll top crust under the bottom crust, sealing the filling inside, and pressing gently with your fingertips. Crimp the edge to give a finished edge, either with your fingers or a fork. Gently slice slits in your top crust to allow steam to escape
- Place the pie pan on a baking sheet to catch any leaking juices, and slide into preheated oven. Bake 45 - 50 minutes, until crust is golden but not too brown.
- Remove to wire rack and allow to cool fully before cutting. Warm pie is delicious, but the juices will not have set and your pie will not slice well. Still good!
Notes
Bard Crust
Ingredients
Method
- Stir the flour, salt, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add the butter and lard piecesand coat with the four mixture. Using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour mixture, working quickly until mostly pea-sized pieces of butter/lard remain. Be careful to not overland.
- Combine the water, cider vinegar, and ice in a measuring cup. Sprinkle 2 TBS of the ice water misture over the flour mixture, then mix and cut it in with a bench scraper (or your hands). Add as needed additional water - this understanding is something you will gain with practice. Go slowly, sprinkling 1/4 - 1/2 tsp at a time, undil the ball of dough has enough moisture to come together into a ball, with some dry bits remaining.
- Squeeze and pinch with your fingertips to bring all the dough together, adding small drops of the water mixture if necessary.
- Cut the ball in half, shape into two flat disks, wrapping separately in plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 1 hour, preferably overnight, to give the gluten strands in the flour time to relax, and make the crust roll out more easily.
- Wrapped well, your dough can be refrigerated for 3 days, or frozen for 1 month.
Notes
My wild, organic-as-can-be apples, ready for pie
