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Puff Paste: Cover
Roll pie crust to the thickness desired. Place upon a pie pan, shaping it carefully, and cut round the edges with a sharp knife. Cover the bottom of the crust with a thin layer of sugar, dust with flour, then fill the crust with quarters of pared and cored apples. Dust with salt, add plenty of sugar-if the apples are very tart-roll an upper crust and lay over them, trim around the edges, press the upper and lower crusts together, bake until the apples are soft and the top and bottom crusts are nicely browned.
Raspberry Pie.
This is an apple pie stripped to essentials: two crusts, sugar, flour, salt, and no oven temperature or time at all. The gaps are worth filling before you start.
- The heading is a printer's artifactThe heading looks like a printer's artifact -- "Cover" here most likely means the top crust of a double-crust pie, and the stray "Raspberry Pie." at the end is probably the catchline for the next entry in the book. Ignore both.
- Oven and timeThe original gives neither. Start at 425F for the first 20 minutes to set and brown the bottom crust, then drop to 350F for another 35-45 minutes, until the juices bubble thickly through the vents and a knife meets no resistance in the apples.
- Cut ventsNo steam holes are mentioned, and without them the top crust balloons and the seal blows out. Slash the lid or prick it before it goes in.
- Sugar and flour on the bottomThat thin layer of sugar dusted with flour acts as the thickener here: it absorbs juice as the apples collapse and keeps the lower crust from going to paste. The recipe specifies only a dusting; a tablespoon or two of flour is a reasonable reading for a 9-inch pie.
- "Plenty of sugar"For a 9-inch pie with tart apples, 3/4 cup total is a reasonable reading; 1/2 cup for sweeter fruit. Quarters, as specified, are chunky by modern habit and will need the longer end of the baking time. Thick slices bake more evenly.
- Puff paste versus pie crustThe recipe sits in a puff-paste section but calls for pie crust. Ordinary shortcrust is what is wanted here; true puff paste under a wet fruit filling turns sodden.
- Pressing the crusts togetherDampen the rim of the lower crust before laying on the lid, then press and crimp. Dry pastry pressed dry does not seal, and a leaking apple pie welds itself to the pan.
- YieldNo pan size is given; assuming a 9-inch pie, six to eight servings. Cool at least an hour before cutting or the filling runs.
Double-crust apple pie was so ordinary in American households that a domestic manual could dispose of it in five lines and move straight on to raspberry. The habit of dusting the bottom crust with sugar and flour does two jobs at once: the flour binds the juice as the fruit breaks down, and the sugar layer draws moisture away from the pastry. The instruction to season with salt as well as sugar is also older practice, and a sound one; it sharpens the fruit rather than sweetening it. Apples were the natural default for a book aimed at year-round domestic economy, since barreled winter apples kept in a cool cellar for months when almost no other fresh fruit did.