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Deep-Dish Apple Pie (English)
4 to 6 tart apples 1 cup sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon butter 1 cup hard sauce Invert a heavy china cup in the center of a baking-dish. Fill the dish full of apples, pared, cored and cut in slices. Cover the dish with plain paste rolled a little thicker than usual, and slashed to allow the steam to escape. Bake for three-quarters of an hour, then remove from oven, and, with a knife, carefully pry up the crust and season with sugar, cinnamon and butter. When serving, slip the knife under the cup to allow the confined juice to mix with the apple. Serve the pie hot with a hard sauce.
An English apple pie in the strict sense: fruit in a deep dish under a single top crust, with no bottom pastry. The original gives no oven temperature, so the numbers below are the ones that suit the method.
- Oven heatBake at 425F for the first 15 minutes to set and colour the pastry, then drop to 375F for the remaining half hour. Three-quarters of an hour at a steady 400F also works if you prefer not to fuss with the dial.
- The inverted cupThis is the hinge of the recipe. A heavy china cup or an egg cup placed upside down in the middle holds the crust up as the apples collapse and traps the juice underneath, so the pastry does not sink into a wet layer. A ceramic pie funnel does the same job.
- Dish and quantityUse a straight-sided baking dish of about 2 quarts, deep enough that the apples reach the rim; 4 to 6 tart apples is roughly 1 1/2 to 2 lb prepared. Granny Smith or another firm cooking apple holds its shape; Bramley cooks down to a puree. A tart apple will take the full cup of sugar.
- "Plain paste"An unsweetened short crust, rolled thicker than for a two-crust pie so it can bridge the cup without tearing. Slash it generously; steam has nowhere else to go.
- Seasoning after bakingSugar, cinnamon and butter go in at the end, through the lifted crust, rather than being tossed with the raw fruit. Prying the baked crust up in one piece takes a thin knife and a light hand; work around the edge first and lift from the centre where the cup supports it. One teaspoon of butter is a token amount by modern taste, and a tablespoon is closer to what the dish will absorb.
- Hard sauceNot a cooked sauce but creamed butter and sifted confectioners' sugar, usually about half a cup of butter to a cup of sugar, flavoured with vanilla, brandy or sherry and chilled firm. A cup of it is enough for this pie; it melts into the hot fruit at the table.
- YieldAbout six servings.