-DOUGH-
1 ts Baking powder
1/2 ts Salt (or less)
1 ds Nutmeg
1 tb Sugar
9 oz Flour (1 cup plus 2 Tbsp.)
5 tb Unsalted butter
1 Egg (room temperature is
-better)
2/3 c Water (room temperature or
-warm)
FILLING
1 tb Lemon juice
5 Apples, medium-large
1/3 c Sugar
7 ts Flour (2 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp)
3/4 ts Cinnamon
1 ds Cloves
1 pn Allspice
1 tb Dark molasses
Very lightly grease one 8- or 9-inch pie pan.
To prepare dough: Melt the butter. While it is melting, combine the
baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and sugar in a medium-sized bowl. Make
sure to kill any baking powder lumps. Add the flour to the other dry
ingredients, and mix very well to create a homogeneous mixture.
Add the melted butter to the dry ingredients, and blend well. Add the
egg (beat the egg separately first, if you like), and blend well.
Gradually add the warm water, in three or four batches, incorporating
each bit of water before adding more.
Mix well. You should end up with a smooth light-yellow liquid — much
thinner than you would expect batter to be. Pour the batter into the
pie pan, and refrigerate it while you go on …
To prepare filling
Start preheating the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit (205 Centigrade)
Put the lemon juice into a medium-large bowl. Peel and core the
apples. Cut each apple into 16 wedges (approximately) and then cut
each wedge in half to make chunks. As you prepare the apples, place
the chunks into the large bowl and toss them with the lemon juice, to
reduce browning. After all the apples are cut, sprinkle the other
ingredients *except the molasses* into the bowl, and mix well to
blend and coat the apples.
To assemble pie Remove the pie pan with batter from refrigerator. (The
batter will have firmed considerably.) Spoon the apples into a mound
on top of the batter. The apples should extend just about to the
edges of the pie plate, but be heaped higher in the middle. If any
liquid is left behind in the filling bowl, pour it on. Drizzle the
tablespoon of molasses on top of the apples.
Bake at 400 Fahrenheit for about 35 minutes, or until the crust,
where it puffs up around the edges between the apple chunks, is
golden tan, and an apple chunk, stabbed with a fork, feels
appropriately soft (but still *al dente*).
Try to let it cool somewhat before cutting and eating.
Notes
I like a mix of apples — Granny Smith, Rome, Paula Red, Empire….
(Although not Macintosh, as they cook into mush.) Depending on the
apples, you may want to modify the amounts of lemon juice and sugar
in the filling.
Changes to the spices are good too — like slivers of candied ginger
in the filling.
Yields
8 Servings