Sliced Apple Pie – 1890 – the prog basket

THE ORIGINAL ‘RECEIPT’

Sliced Apple Pie.

Take ripe, tart apples, pare, core and cut them into very thin slices, fill the under crust; then strew over the apples as much sugar as you would think they required, a little nutmeg or cinnamon to taste, and a teaspoonful of butter. Cover with the upper paste, make a few small incisions in the middle of the upper crust and bake in a mild oven.
~Warren, Mrs. Jane. The Economical Cook Book. New York: Hurst and Company, 1890.

…flowers by Heather Little…. #stunning!

THE UPDATED RECIPE

pastry for one double-crust 9-inch diameter pie (I used the Rich Short Crust recipe)
4 to 5 large Spy apples (or any other “pie apple” you prefer)
½ c. brown sugar
½ tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. butter.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Line a 9-inch diameter pie plate with pastry (I used the Rich Short Crust recipe).

Peel, quarter, core and thinly slice the apples, and fill the pastry shell, until the slices are heaped above the top of the pie plate.

Sprinkle the apples with the brown sugar, and sprinkle the cinnamon and nutmeg evenly over the top; then dot with the butter.

Cover the pie with the upper crust; seal and flute the edges, and slash the pastry in several places near the centre, in order to allow steam to escape.

Place the pie in a preheated oven, and bake at 350F for 10 to 15 minutes; then reduce the oven temperature to 300F and bake for about another hour and a quarter, until the crust is a light golden brown, and the apples are soft. (Insert a cake tester through one of the slashes in the top crust, to test for doneness.)

Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

Serve hot or cold, as preferred. Top with vanilla ice cream or fresh whipping cream.

Long, slow baking is the secret to success with this recipe – it is succulent, and all that Apple Pie should be!

A note from Patricia: I needed to bring a dessert to our family Thanksgiving dinner, so Apple Pie it was, and this one seemed easy enough. I went apple picking a week ago with my BFF and her daughters up in Creemore, Ontario, and came home with quite the mixture of delicious organic apples, so this was the perfect way to use them. I substituted 1:1 gluten-free baking flour for the all-purpose flour in the pastry, and it worked out well. I’m still trying to find my way with pastry, especially when dealing with gluten-free flour, but I’m slowly learning the consistency that the pastry mixture needs to be before rolling it out. It’s a journey. For the filling, I sliced a couple of Granny Smith apples I had hanging around, and then used a few small Cortlands and a Macintosh and a HoneyCrisp – a real mishmash – and I basically kept slicing until the pastry base was piled ridiculously high with apples. I struggled a bit getting the top crust on, but covered up any messy bits and the edges of the pie with some cute leaf cut-outs that I made with the extra bits of pastry. I did a bit of a beaten egg white wash on top, and then sprinkled on some coarse cane sugar. The taste? It was a classic apple pie with an irresistible, gooey, comforting centre that was beautifully spiced. I really enjoyed it…. Sometimes the simplest of recipes are the best, and this lovely pie with its buttery crust proves just that.

NORTHERN SPY. – Large, roundish, conical; handsomely striped with red; flesh tender; flavor mild and agreeable, spice, excellent, which it retains with remarkable freshness late in the Spring.
~Gregg, Thomas. A Hand-Book of Fruit Culture. New York: Fowler and Wells, Publishers, 1857. [quoting “Tucker’s Annual Register”.]

Dried Apple Pies.

I loathe, abhor, detest, despise,

Abominate dried apple pies.

I like good bread, I like good meat,

Or anything that’s fit to eat;

But of all poor grub beneath the skies

The poorest is dried apple pies.

Give me the toothache or sore eyes,

But don’t give me dried apple pies.

The farmer takes his gnarliest fruit,

‘Tis wormy, bitter, and hard, to boot;

They leave the hulls to make us cough,

And don’t take half the peeling off.

Then on a dirty cord ‘tis strung,

And in a garret window hung;

And there it serves, a roost for flies,

Until it’s made up into pies.

Tread on my corns and tell me lies,

But don’t pass me dried apple pies.
~Good Housekeeping. Springfield, Mass.: Clark W. Bryan, January, 1891.