17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, October 15, 1912: Ditto.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Another slow day a hundred years ago. . . .
This Fall, I’ve enjoyed making old-time apple recipes. Here’s another one that I really like.
Open-faced Apple Pie
Pastry for a 1-crust pie
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Approximately 5-6 medium Macintosh apples*
1 tablespoon milk
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line 9-inch pie pan with the pastry.
Put the sugar, flour, and cinnamon into a medium bowl; stir together. Peel, core, and quarter the apples. Put the quartered apples into the bowl with the sugar mixture; stir gently to coat apples. Arrange the apples in the pie pan by placing the apples closely together on their sides. Small pieces of apples can be used to fill any gaps between the apple quarters. Add the milk to the pie by pouring it between any two of the apples.
Cook the pie at 425 for 10 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 350. Cook approximately 25 additional minutes or until the apples are tender when poked with a fork.
*Other apple varieties that keep their shape when cooked can be substituted for the Macintosh apples.
In case you have lots of apples like I do, here are links to some previously posted apple recipes.
17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, June 13, 1912: I guess I’ve forgotten.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
My sour cherries are getting ripe and I made an old-fashioned cherry pie. Grandma mentioned picking berries on June 10—but hasn’t mentioned cherries. I wonder if cherries ripened this early in 1912.
Here’s the recipe I used to make the pie:
Old-Fashioned Cherry Pie
Pastry for 9-inch two crust pie (see pie pastry recipe in previous post)
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup flour
4 cups fresh pitted sour cherries
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Stir the sugar, flour, and almond extract into the cherries. If the mixture is very juicy add additional flour. Turn into pastry-lined pie pan. Make a lattice top crust and flute edges. Brush crust with a small amount of milk; sprinkle with sugar. Bake in oven for 10 minutes; then reduce heat to 350 degrees. Bake an additional 20 to 30 minutes or until crust is lightly browned and juice just begins to bubble.
I made my own pie crust dough using the recipe that I previously included in the post for Rhubarb Sponge Pie. I doubled that recipe since I basically needed two crusts for this pie.
For the lattice top crust, I cut the dough into strips about 3/4 inch wide and laid them on the top of the pie. I try to lay every other one perpendicular to the previous one—but the lattice never ends up being woven exactly right. I never worry much about that because the pie tastes so awesome.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, June 5, 1911: Mother, Besse and Ruthie flew around today a baking pies and cakes. I thought it be fun to swipe one, but oh, the result.
Rhubarb Sponge Pie
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma’s married sister Besse came to help her mother and sister bake pies and cakes. It sounds like Grandma didn’t help—I wonder why. As a 16-year-old, you’d think that she’d be a competent baker (or at least could help with some of the easier tasks). But instead Grandma apparently was clowning around—and swiped a pie—and got into trouble. Whew, what punishment was referred to as “the result”?
What kinds of pie did they make? My favorite old-fashioned spring pie is Rhubarb Sponge Pie. (I got this recipe from my mother-in-law. However, it is an old-time Pennsylvania recipe—and the Muffly women may have made a similar pie.)
Rhubarb Sponge Pie
3 eggs
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 cup sugar
dash salt
1 cup milk
2 cups rhubarb
9 inch pie shell (see recipe below)
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Beat eggs slightly. Add flour, nutmeg, sugar, and salt; Beat for 1 minute. Add milk and beat until blended. Stir in rhubarb. Bake at 425 degrees for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to 325 degrees. Bake (1 – 1 1/2 hours*) until knife inserted into center of pie comes out clean.
*This pie takes a long time to bake. If the rhubarb starts to turn brown (burn) before the center of the pie is solid, reduce heat to 300 degrees.
Any pie pastry recipe—or a pie pastry purchased at the store— can be used to make Rhubarb Sponge Pie. But for a really flakey crust with an absolutely awesome taste, make an old-fashioned pie shell using lard.
I absolutely love the recipe below. At the stores where I shop lard can be surprisingly difficult to find—and I am always searching for it so that I can make really good pies. (Clayton and Elizabeth, thank you for the lard that I used to make the pie in the photo!)
In any case, here’s the recipe:
Old-Fashioned Pie Pastry (1 crust, 9 inch)
1 cup flour
1/3 cup lard
2 to 3 tablespoons cold water
Put flour into bowl. Cut in shortening using two knives or a pastry blender. Add water and mix using a fork until dough starts to cling together. If needed, add additional water.
With a little practice it’s easy to cut lard (or shortening) into the flour using two knives. I learned how to do it when I was young and have never felt a need to buy a pastry blender.
Gather dough together in a ball. Flatten into a round circle on lightly floured surface (a floured pastry cloth works well). Roll dough 2 inches larger than needed to fit pie pan using floured rolling pin. Fold pastry into quarters; unfold and fit into pan.
Trim edge of pastry 1/2 inch from rim of pan. Flute pastry to create edge by pressing between fingers that are moving in opposite directions.
