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Apple Custard Pie
Sliced apples 4 beaten eggs 2 cups milk 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt Line pie plate with rich paste. Spread the sliced apples over to half fill the plate. Add milk, sugar and salt to the well beaten eggs, and pour over apples. Bake in slow oven for 30 minutes, after starting in hot oven for 10 minutes. 1 pie.
A single-crust apple custard, baked in one operation: the apples soften while the egg mixture sets around them. The two-stage oven is the whole method, and it is worth following.
- Apple quantityThe ingredient line gives "Sliced apples 4" and then "4 beaten eggs," so it is not certain whether the four refers to apples or only to eggs. The instruction to fill the plate half full is the reliable guide: for a 9-inch plate that is roughly 3 medium firm apples, peeled and sliced thin.
- The two oven temperatures"Hot oven" here means 425-450F for the first 10 minutes, to set and brown the pastry bottom before the liquid soaks in. "Slow oven" means 300-325F for the remaining 30 minutes, low enough that the custard sets without boiling.
- Why the drop mattersEgg custard that reaches a simmer curdles and weeps water into the crust. Lower the setting as soon as the first 10 minutes are up, and prop the oven door briefly if your oven holds heat.
- DonenessForty minutes is on the short side for 2 cups of milk with 4 eggs. Bake until the edge is set and the center still wobbles as a unit, about 170-175F on an instant-read thermometer; it firms further as it cools.
- Slice the apples thinNothing in the method precooks the fruit, so thick wedges will still be crisp when the custard is set. Slice no more than 1/8 inch, and choose an apple that holds shape without needing long cooking.
- Rich pasteThis means an ordinary short pie pastry made with a generous proportion of fat, not puff paste. Chill the lined plate before it goes in.
- SeasoningThe original is deliberately plain. A grating of nutmeg or 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon over the apples before the custard goes on is period-appropriate and does not affect the set.
- YieldThe recipe says simply '1 pie'; in a standard pie plate that is six modest servings. Custard pies do not improve overnight; serve the day they are baked and refrigerate any remainder.