Easy as Pie ~ There’s Still Time to Make an Apple Pie for Thanksgiving!

November 20, 2018

By Chef Jeannette Pothier

One of Chef Jeannette’s apple pies, ready to go into the oven – Image (c) Jeannette Pothier, 2018 all rights reserved

Still looking for a great Thanksgiving desert? Try baking a classic apple pie!

Click this link to read Chef Jeannette’s fabulous Apple Pie recipe, then read on to learn her technique and a bit of history about pies.

Today I teach pie making and other things, but every year, it’s the Pie Class I look forward to. Why? I like making crusts, and sharing what my mother did not teach me. Things I learned from the late Madeleine Kamman, my teacher, and owner of Modern Gourmet in Newton, Mass.  Yes, we have a French twist, but it makes a great crust for an American Apple Pie.  First, you must be willing to try it.  A few things that are critical are cold fat (butter or lard, or a combination of these two), and cold water.  It is that simple.

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If you own a food processor, it is even quicker and the crusts come out nice. Hot hands sometimes make the fat too warm, but the food processor stainless steel blade has no such problem.   What it does is mix the flour and fat evenly, and without over processing it, you have small pieces (pea size) of fat mixed in.  Adding the cold water with a few pulses finishes the crust.  Do not process it until it forms a ball.  That’s where my French technique comes in.  I then take the dough on the pastry mat, divide in half if you are making 2 crusts at the same time, and then you gather the mixture.

Working with your right hand extended, push the dough forward using the inside of your thumb, that is the coldest part of your hand.  It combines the fat and flour now that you have added the water.  It holds the crust together.  Chilling the dough makes it easier to roll, since butter may have gotten warm while making the crust if you made it by hand.  To roll out the dough, leave it out of the refrigerator for 5 minutes.

Having a nice French rolling pin, without handles, works best for me, and I give my dough a few slaps with the rolling pin before rolling out.  It softens the dough somewhat, and don’t let it stick to your rolling mat.  Use just enough flour to prevent sticking.

A History of Pies, or Pyes

Once upon a time, a long time ago, pies spelled pyes, were made in the Middle Ages.  In my study of pies, I learned they were very different from today’s pies.  They did not contain sugar and the pastry was called a coffin, that was not meant to be eaten.

By the 16th century, sugar was more available, and the pastry could be eaten.  Time wrote a brief history of Pies, and specifically, it told of that first Thanksgiving.  When the English reached these shores they found no apple trees, but rather crab apples.  Pumpkin, pecan, and such pies were not included in that first Thanksgiving in 1621 in Plimouth, now Plymouth, MA.

The original apple pies recipes came from England.  They were made with unsweetened apples, and the shell was still not edible   A cookbook in 1796 listed only 3 sweet pies, but in the late 1800’s it featured 8 sweet pies.  In 1947, the Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking listed 65 different varieties of sweet pies.

About Chef Jeannette Pothier

Bedford Recreation offers cooking classes taught by Jeannette Pothier, a professional Chef with Culinary Arts teaching degrees from Modern Gourmet, Newton, MA.

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