I can’t take any credit for this pie, other than having been an experienced taste-tester. At my kids’ request, my mother-in-law took the reins on this project during a recent visit.
She used the pastry recipe here from Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking and her favorite apple pie filling recipe for the center. According to her, the dough was “terrible, just terrible to work with,” but of course GF doughs are often tricky and tend to fall apart a lot. We wondered if using a pastry cloth would’ve made it easier (I don’t have one). Still, though, isn’t it a beautiful pie?
The results are so delicious that I would definitely try this again, tricky dough or not! A certain anonymous person (not a gluten-free eater) even tried to eat more than his allotted share.
I would say the pastry was a bit more crackery in texture than traditional dough, but it was still yummy. I think I’ll try it again at Thanksgiving, though I may use a crumble-top instead of a pastry top.
Currently reading America’s Women by Gail Collins. She’s got such a fresh voice and fantastic sense of humor—-this is the way history should be written.
A few of posts around the web that caught my fancy recently:
–this one from Amy Karol of Angry Chicken about using free digital art from the Rijksmuseum
–a glow-in-the-dark party over at Elsie Marley
–love, loooove this collaboration between an illustrator and her 4-year-old
Hope you had a great weekend. Ours was long and relatively lazy. We even started some Christmas crafting. Feels a little early, but I know it’ll be here before we know it. I even went totallly nerdo and made a spreadsheet of the gifts I’ve already purchased and squirreled away. I have more of a head start than I thought. Woohooo!
Clockwise from from top left – Apple, Chocolate Pecan, Pumpkin and Lemon Meringue!
by Amy M. O’Quinn for the National Writing for Children Center
Children’s picture books are a staple in the homes of most families. They have long been the first choice for bedtime stories or just for when someone needs a cuddle on the couch. Well-loved stories have stood the test of time and bring back good memories from our childhoods, and we all need that special reminder from time to time—no matter how old we are. Moreover, we are always discovering new favorites as we share them with our children, ever adding to the cherished cache.
Picture books can also help us celebrate the changing seasons as we read beloved classics concentrating on winter, spring, summer, or, as we are enjoying now, autumn. In fact, this delightful segment of the year brings us colorful falling leaves, cooler days, cozy quilts, and comforting smells of good things baking in the oven. Autumn also means pumpkins and APPLES and the many delicious possibilities they contain. Below are a few book suggestions and several ideas for using these stories as a ‘jumping off’ point for some yummy autumn fun for everyone!
How To Make An Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman is a wonderful story about what happens when it’s time to bake an apple pie, but the market is closed. Of course, this situation requires you to take a trip around the world to gather all the fresh ingredients, right at their sources. For example, you’ll need semolina wheat from Italy, a French chicken to lay a fresh egg, an English cow to give the richest milk, the bark of a kurundu tree from Sri Lanka that will be ground into cinnamon, seawater to evaporate for salt, and rosy apples from Vermont. No problem, right?
This delicious tale by Ms. Priceman is perfect for fall! There is a recipe for apple pie at the end of the book which would make a perfect finish! While eating a slice of your pie and a drinking a glass of milk, you might even want to explore a globe or map to locate the places mentioned in the story—a great geography lesson to go along with a delectable culinary creation!
The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall is another great ‘pick’! Two young sisters follow the cycle of an apple tree and how the apples are formed—from the bud to the fruit. The story includes the role of weather and bees in the production of the fruit, as well as a little side story about the robins who build their nest in the tree. The tale concludes with the apple harvest, and of course another recipe for apple pie is included.
In addition to a pie baking activity, this book lends itself very well to the whole scientific aspect of fruit production, pollination, weather patterns, and life cycles in general. Visiting an apple orchard or U-Pick facility would make a great field trip to go along with any of these books.
Applesauce by Shirley Kurtz takes the ‘apple’ idea one step further. This book focuses on a family’s quest to gather enough apples to make enough applesauce to last through the winter. The pictures in the book are very helpful for understanding the process of making applesauce, and easy directions are included. Jars of homemade applesauce would make thoughtful gifts for children to give to family and friends.
Johnny Appleseed by Reeve Lindburgh would make a wonderful wrap-up after baking up so many apple goodies in the kitchen. This poem about John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) tells the story of one man’s crusade to spread apple seeds from Massachusetts to the Midwest. Can you think up other recipes that use apples as the main ingredient? Search your cookbooks and see what yummy things you can discover. Create your own autumn recipe idea notebook.
There are also quite a few picture books about pumpkins too, and many can be used as a starting point for enjoyable kitchen activities as well. Perhaps a side trip to the pumpkin patch is in order before coming home to bake up some down home goodness. Some suggestions are:
-The Pumpkin Patch by Elizabeth King
-Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin, Pie by Jill Esbaum
-Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White
-Biscuit Visits the Pumpkin Patch by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
Need more ideas? Here’s an excellent bonus recipe for Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread.
Ingredients:
· 3 cups white sugar
· 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
· 1 cup vegetable oil
· 2/3 cup water
· 4 eggs
· 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
· 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
· 1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
· 2 teaspoons baking soda
· 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
· 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
· 1/2 cup chopped pecans
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three loaf pans. In a large bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin, oil, water, and eggs. Beat until smooth. Blend in flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. Fold in chocolate chips and nuts. Fill pans 1/2 to 3/4 full. Bake for 1 hour, or until a knife comes out clean. Cool on wire racks before removing from pans.
So scan your library bookshelves, ‘pick’ a few great books to share, and pre-heat the oven. Don an apron, bake up some autumn goodness, and enjoy the ‘fruits’ of your labor!
Amy M. O’Quinn is a pastor’s wife and former schoolteacher-turned-homeschool mom of six. She is also a freelance writer who enjoys jotting down ideas around the fringes of family life. She specializes in non-fiction, and her work has been published or acquired by various magazines including Jack and Jill, US Kids, Guideposts for Kids, Learning Through History Magazine, Highlights, GEORGIA
Magazine, Homeschooling Today, International Gymnast, etc. She is also a product/curriculum/book reviewer for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and a regular columnist for TEACH Magazine. The O’Quinns live on the family farm in rural south Georgia. You can visit Amy at amyoquinn.com or http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/picketfencemom.
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Leaves crackle underfoot and the early-morning air smells like an ice cube. It’s autumn. Time for the annual public library pie contest.
My mother did not bake ordinary pies. Creating a pie was a day’s event, begun with two knives cutting butter and shortening into flour until it resembled sand, a forgotten summer sight until its culinary resurrection. She floated from cupboard to bowl, bowl to oven with a grace befitting a ballerina. She sliced. She whipped. She dolloped. She made the house smell better than Willy Wonka’s factory.
And so, when I was nine years old, I thought my mother finally deserved public acknowledgement of her pie prowess. When I saw a poster announcing our library’s fall pie contest, I entered her name. When I returned home and told her, she was more excited than I was.
Which pie shall it be? The apple-cranberry? No, too predictable. The three-berry pie? No, out of season. Ahh, I know. The chocolate-amaretto chiffon pie.
Children aren’t supposed to have a taste for amaretto. I was the exception. The almond-flavored liquor enhanced the chocolate flavor so well, I thought I might faint. Her creation began with homemade chocolate pudding, then a tall dome of whipped cream, onto which she drizzled an amaretto-chocolate reduction. Slivered almonds and chocolate shavings dusted the top with such even precision, you might think she arranged each piece with tweezers. I do not know how we transported the pie unscathed, but we arrived and unveiled the masterpiece to such gasps of amazement, the librarians had to shush us.
The event boasted eight pies, but zero competition. An apple pie with a rustic crust appeared soggy and deflated. Mom’s hand-fluted crust would have made Martha envious. My teeth stuck together just looking at the shoo-fly pie. The chocolate-amaretto pie melted on the tongue.
A librarian instructed three judges to score the pies on a scale of 1 to 3 according to three criteria: appearance, taste and originality. Yes, yes and yes. She would win all three. I would be so proud. She would remember that it was I, her eldest daughter, who launched her pie celebrity.
The first sign that this would be a real contest was when one judge glanced at another’s appearance score for Mom’s pie. “Wow, you’re a tough cookie!” she said. Translation: Mom probably received a 1 from the Russian Judge instead of a well-deserved 3.
Tasting came next. The judges took one bite of each pie. There was tongue swishing, water gulping, and lip pursing. A gentle scribble, scribble on their note cards.
Finally, originality. With pumpkin, pecan, and plain ol’ lemon meringue, Mom’s fusion of almond and chocolate would take that category for certain.
Our entire family waited nervously for the awards to be announced.
“Third place: the shoo-fly pie!” A tiny, elderly woman shuffled to the front of the room and accepted a ribbon and a cookbook. She posed for the town photographer.
If Mom did not take second, then I knew first prize would be hers.
“Second place: the pumpkin pie!” A young mother smiled as she received a ceramic pie plate.
Hooray! Victory! A pie for the record books! A pie to launch a career! My mother, the world’s best baker! (Or, at least the best baker in this town of 20,000!)
“And the winner is…and we have to say, this was a unanimous decision…the apple pie!”
What? That sorry-looking blob? It’s just APPLE! Anyone can make an apple pie! It takes a creative genius to pair chocolate with amaretto (especially in 1979)!
The worst part of the defeat was that the woman who won was not even present. Yep, it was a drop-off pie.
Once the prizes were announced, the pies were cut and plates distributed. And which pie do you think disappeared first? Mom’s chocolate-amaretto chiffon. Our family snubbed the other pies and dug into our favorite.
In the end, I learned that public accolades aren’t important. After all, there’s really no accounting for taste.
"In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe." ~ Carl Sagan
Everyone, please rise.
Apple pie has entered the room.
Sing or salute, if you like. It's the patriotic thing to do. And if your mom is nearby, give her a hug.
Apple pie = America.
It's part of our collective consciousness -- the place where food, emotions, memories, and idealism converge. Yet how did it come to symbolize so much -- the prosperity of a nation, core family values, nostalgia for white-haired grandmas with rolling pins, the comfort of childhood and home in an age when families live splintered lives?
Apple pie didn't even originate in America. Its modern-day form can be traced back to 14th century England. One of the first printed recipes appeared in a cookbook called
The Forme of Cury by Samuel Pegge (1390 A.D.), a compilation prepared by King Richard II's master cooks, later presented to Queen Elizabeth I:
(Source: Project Gutenberg Ebook)
Crust recipes were not usually included in these early cookbooks because pastry-making was more-or-less common knowledge among Medieval cooks. The apple tart cited here was a large, shallow open pie without a top crust. As with all other pies, or coffins, baked during this period, the crusts were hard and
tough -- they served as containers and serving vessels and were not meant to be eaten. Sugar was scarce and expensive and wasn't incorporated in pie baking until the 16th century, when pastry became edible.
Though the Egyptians are credited with the idea of pie, Greeks with pastry crust, and the Romans with spreading the delicious word about pie throughout Europe, it was the English who made pie an institution. When the Pilgrims came to America, they brought along their favorite pie recipes, and then adapted them according to availability of ingredients and regional techniques, even "cutting corners" by making pies round.
Pie speaks to the colonization of America and the subsequent expansion of the country as pioneers (who served pie at every meal) forged west. Only the crab apple was indigenous to the U.S., but European settlers brought other species and planted them widely. Apples could survive a variety of climates and made good pies whether the fruit was dried, canned, frozen, or fresh. In different regions of the country, different versions of apple pie abounded, to include slumps, cobblers, tarts, turnovers, buckle, pandowdy, and crisp.
Jack Kerouac supposedly ate apple pie a la mode every day while "on the road." Perhaps this slice of homemade nostalgia was a stabilizing element in his days of creative wanderlust. Back then, it was easy to find good old fashioned apple pie and point to the person who had baked it. Not anymore. No one seems to have the time.
Pie cannot be hurried. It takes time and caring to peel and slice apples, roll out a crust and shape it lovingly by hand. It also takes time to share some pie with the new neighbor across the street, or have a fresh slice waiting when a child gets home from school. Fewer and fewer of us make (or know how to make) a pie from scratch; far easier to pop a Pepperidge Farm or Marie Callender into the oven, or drop by the bakery on the way home from work. Yet most of us yearn for it. At any given moment, we can conjure up our ideal apple pie:
A light flaky crust with perfect crumbling capacity, not too tough and never soggy. An enticing mound of uniformly cut apple chunks, bathed in its own warm syrup, spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar and a little lemon juice. If you are so inclined, topped off with a generous scoop of creamy, homemade vanilla bean ice cream.
With Independence Day coming up in a couple of weeks, I hope you will consider baking your own apple pie. The crust is critical and does take practice. But chances are good that your friends and family will appreciate the time and caring you took just for them. As you're rolling out the dough, reflect on our early pioneers, who scraped together a pie from whatever scant meat, berries, or fruits they could find, or the Pilgrims who braved treacherous journeys across the Atlantic with family pie recipes in hand.
American Apple Pie is a very hardworking icon -- it fills the void of family far away and symbolizes a small-town way of life that is in danger of disappearing. It's a persistent and resilient myth that endures no matter what else pops up on the star spangled plate. That's a lot to ask of any pie. Cherish your slice.
"It is utterly insufficient . . . as anyone who knows the secret of our strength as a nation and the foundation of our industrial supremacy must admit. Pie is the American synonym of prosperity, and its varying contents the calendar of the changing seasons. PIE IS THE FOOD OF THE HEROIC. No pie-eating people can ever be vanquished." ~ New York Times, (1902)
Tomorrow: Apple Pie memories and a couple of recipes!
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WOW. Great post. I know you didn’t make this, but it looks fantastic. Thanks for sharing! Ill keep reading
Thanks! It really was fantastic. Must repeat. Thanks for reading.
I can smell it all the way here on the west coast…I WANT a slice NOW!!!!
Sorry, Donna. It evaporated!
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