Bye-bye Miss American pie

Renoir

The Apple Seller

The apple is one of nature's most glorious gifts.  Saturday was a cold, rainy morning, but I enjoyed seeing the local growers with their boxes of fine organic apples at the Twisp outdoor market.

Honeycrisp apples rule the roost.  When the craze started a few years ago, new Honeycrisp orchards were planted and they're all producing now.  Honeycrisp is a good eating apple, but they don't keep long in the refrigerator and you can't bake with them. Plus I can buy them here for the same price.

Anyway, on the edge of the market an older couple were selling (older) varieties from the back of their pickup for $1 a pound.  I bought some Winesap, Northern Spy and another called Spitz (I think.)  These are perfect cooking apples, and they told us in detail what each variety was best for.  It would be hard to find them anywhere in Seattle.

 

I made a pie yesterday, something I don't do much anymore, but hey-- it's that time of year.  When John got home from work, he asked me if Martha Stewart dropped by?

Being an expert on pie and everything else, she would have had many irritating and bossy tips. But I like to wing it when I make pie. Sometimes this works, sometimes not so good.

There's always an element of unknown with natural, new ingredients. This is what makes cooking fun.  I used plenty of butter and cinnamon, and for the first time, brown sugar instead of white. Why have I never done that before? So much tastier than icky white sugar.

These baking apples are quite hard and dense, so this small pie baked for almost two hours until the juice finally bubbled up and the apples got soft.  I'm sure this is the secret to the rich, flavorful filling you can only get with old-fashioned varieties. 

Here's something wholesome that's much less work and calories.  A plain, cored apple filled with nuts, dried cranberries, with a touch of brown sugar and maple syrup.  Bake until it is very soft, then serve with a dab a vanilla ice cream.  John swears a tablespoon of brandy on top makes it even better.

We have to keep our spirits up.  Twenty-eight days until election.