Apple Cream Pie

Last year, my friend Shiela lent me a delightful little autobiographical book called Little Heathens by Mildred Armstrong Kalish, about her childhood on a farm in Iowa during the great depression. She and her family were poor, but because they had a farm (which had topsoil, unlike other places!) they always had the food they grew and raised. One of the delightful things in the book is the recipes she shares; one that stood out for me was Apple Cream Pie. Naturally, they used lard in their pie crust! I've tried the recipe a few times, and it really is a delicious recipe, well worth a permanent spot in your repertoire.


Apple Cream Pie

from Little Heathens by Mildred Armstrong Kalish


Ingredients:

1 pie crust

¾ cup sugar
3 TB flour
½ tsp salt
6 Granny Smith or other baking apples, peeled, cored, cut in eighths
2 TB lemon juice, as needed (if the apples need contrast)
1 cup heavy cream
1 TB sugar to garnish the top.

1. Combine the 3/4 cups sugar, flour, and salt and mix well

2. Line pie pan with crust. Sprinkle bottom with 3 TB of sugar mixture, press gently into crust w/palm of hand.

3. If apples need tartness, toss them with the lemon juice.

4. Arrange apples on top of the pie crust and sprinkle with remainder of sugar mixture

5. Dust liberally with cinnamon.

6. Pour cream over all

7. Sprinkle w/ 1 TB of sugar.


Bake at 450 F for 12 minutes, then lower temp to 350, bake about 1 hour, or until apples are done. The cream will seem runny when you take out the pie; it will thicken as it cools.