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Dutch Apple Pie
Pare, core, and slice 3 pounds of apples, and wash and dry half a pound of currants; lay part of the apples in a dish, and strew the currants, some sugar, and the grated rind of a lemon over. Take off the white part of the lemon, cut the pulp into thin slices, and spread them on the currants; add sugar and plenty of candied orange and citron peel, sliced, and fill up with the remainder of the apples. Cover with a light paste, and bake in a rather quick oven for an hour or more.
Dried fruit can be utilized for pies by soaking and steaming.
A deep, single-crust apple pie in the older English style, sweetened as much by dried and candied fruit as by sugar. The proportions are generous: three pounds of apples wants a deep dish, not a standard 9-inch pie plate.
- "Rather quick oven"Roughly 400-425F in modern terms; the recipe itself gives no temperature. Because the filling is raw fruit and the bake runs an hour or more, one workable approach is 20 minutes hot to set and colour the pastry, then a drop to around 350F for the remainder so the crust does not darken before the apples collapse.
- CurrantsThese are dried Zante currants \ small dried grepes...
- The lemonGrate the zest, then pare away every trace of white pith before slicing the pulp. Pith left on turns bitter over an hour in the oven, and the sliced flesh is the one element here that keeps the sweetness in check.
- Candied peel"Plenty" is vague; 3 to 4 oz of mixed candied orange and citron peel between them suits 3 lb of apples. Modern supermarket mixed peel is cut much finer than the whole candied pieces this recipe assumes, since it directs the cook to slice them.
- SugarNo quantity is given, and with half a pound of currants plus candied peel the fruit brings a great deal of its own. Start at 1/2 cup total, strewn between the layers as directed, and adjust to the apples; a firm tart cooking apple such as Bramley or Granny Smith suits the method, though the recipe names no variety.
- "A light paste"A plain shortcrust or rough puff, top only. Cut steam vents; three pounds of apples give off a great deal of liquid and a sealed lid will lift and split.
- Vessel and yieldUse a deep pie dish of 2 quarts or more, with a lip the pastry can grip. It serves eight to ten, and slices best after an hour's cooling — cut hot, the fruit runs.
- Dried fruitThe closing note is a general remark about using dried fruit in pies rather than an instruction for this filling. Dried fruit needs soaking in warm water until pliable and then steaming until tender before it will bake in the time given.
In American usage "Dutch apple pie" now nearly always means a pie under a crumb or streusel lid, whereas this is a plain top-crust pie in which the fruit is enriched with dried currants, candied citrus peel and lemon rather than with spice; the origin of the name is disputed and cannot be settled from this recipe. Candied orange and citron peel were expensive keeping goods, bought in whole pieces and sliced as needed — as this recipe directs — and a pie that used them freely was a company pie. The recipe's structure, layers of apple with fruit and sugar strewn between under a single top crust, belongs to a tradition of deep-dish fruit pies baked in earthenware rather than in metal plates. The sugar is left unmeasured, as often in recipes of this kind.