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Apple and Date Pie
Line a deep pie plate with crust. Put into it a layer of sliced tart apples, and cover with a layer of washed, stoned, and sliced dates. Pour over all one-third cup sugar and one-eighth teaspoon salt, mixed. Cover with top crust, and bake slowly from forty-five minutes to one hour. Serve with cream.
A two-fruit pie that relies on the dates for sweetness and body, with only a third of a cup of sugar to help them along. The long, gentle bake is the point: the apples must soften and the dates dissolve into a jammy layer without the crust scorching.
- "Bake slowly"The recipe names no temperature; in period usage a slow oven is usually taken as somewhere around 300-350F. If you want a bottom crust that sets rather than steams, you can depart from the instruction and start hot, about 425F for 15 minutes, before dropping low for the balance of the 45 to 60 minutes.
- Deep pie plateA standard 9-inch deep-dish plate holds this comfortably. Figure on about 5 cups of sliced apples and 1 to 1 1/2 cups of sliced dates.
- Dates"washed, stoned" simply means whole unpitted dates, which needed rinsing and the stones pulled out. Modern pitted Deglet Noor slice cleanly and are close in sweetness; Medjool are softer and sweeter, so consider cutting the sugar further if you use them.
- Tart applesGranny Smith or a firm Northern Spy hold their shape through an hour's bake; Bramley is tart but breaks down to puree, so use it only if you want a soft layer. Sweeter dessert apples tend to go soft and, against the dates, can make the whole thing cloying.
- No thickenerThe recipe adds no flour or cornstarch. Dates absorb a good deal of the apple juice as they soften, but if your apples are very juicy, a tablespoon of flour tossed with the sugar and salt will keep the bottom crust from going slack.
- Vent the topWith a full hour in the oven and two fruits giving up moisture, cut generous slits or the top crust will lift and split at the rim.
- Serve with creamThe recipe says no more than that; most likely plain pouring cream over a warm slice rather than whipped. Single or light cream suits it.
- YieldSix to eight slices. Best warm on the day it is baked; the crust softens overnight.
Dates became more widely available in American kitchens over the later nineteenth century, imported pressed in boxes from the Persian Gulf and North Africa. Cookbooks of the period, including those written from a health-reform or domestic-science standpoint, made use of them as a way to sweeten baking with less refined sugar, which fits what is happening here: a full pie carries only a third of a cup. Pairing them with a sharp cooking apple is sound kitchen logic more than tradition, the acid cutting a sweetness that would otherwise be flat.