Apple Raspberry Pie
Can you take another pie?
I remember my parents explaining to me why Christmas wouldn’t be special anymore if it came every day – it would just turn into the ordinary, into routine, and eventually we’d begin looking forward to something else. It seems this theory doesn’t apply to freshly baked pies. Especially when they arrive every day with ice cream.
It was Emily’s last day before heading back to school (her school has a modified schedule) and she wanted to spend her last afternoon making pie. (Not to suggest that baking a pie would take all afternoon – we did it during the 6 o’clock news.) E is a soccer star, and her season ended (at the provincials last weekend – yay E!), and there is now a month and a half before her indoor season begins. She decided to devote some of that time to baking. And making ice cream. Looks like I’d better take up jogging.
I let her choose what kind, while gently nudging her toward the stone fruits – nectarines, peaches, plums, cherries – she chose apple, but wanted to do something with the pint or so of raspberries she managed to forage in her back yard. We decided on apple-raspberry.
It didn’t take many raspberries – a cupful tossed over 6 or 7 apples did the trick. We carved slits in the top pastry to allow steam to escape. E’s Mom is a math teacher.
I love when something that wouldn’t have occurred to me if left to my own devices (and appetite) totally blows me away. The apple-raspberry combo was a perfect balance of sweet and tart, without worry of overjuiciness, which can be a risk in an all-raspberry pie. Also? It could very well come out tasting like pastry filled with hot jam.
What really did it for me (to me?) was the raspberry ice cream. Why is it that strawberry is such a primary flavour – right up there with chocolate and vanilla – while raspberries are completely neglected? Raspberries, unless you are lucky enough to acquire the very best strawberries, have more flavour and punch – we mashed them up, and stirred them into almost-frozen sweetened cream. I don’t think I can buy ice cream from the grocery store anymore. I may officially be spoiled.
I had made a double batch of pastry yesterday – the recipe from The Harrow Fair Cookbook. All my life I’ve spurned the idea of egg and vinegar in my pastry – I think I may be reformed. The recipe works perfectly. (I did use less salt and only 1 tsp. vinegar, which I doubt makes much difference.) Click on this photo – check out those flakes! (Here’s one of those instances where having flakes isn’t totally mortifying.) Which is not to say flakes like this cannot be achieved with flour-butter-lard-water alone. I’m just saying.
Apple-Raspberry Pie
AuthorJulie
Preheat the oven to 450F. Line a 9-inch pie plate with pastry, fitting it in without stretching it - let the edges hang over the side.
Slice the apples into a large bowl. In a small bowl, stir together the sugar, flour and salt; add to the apples and toss them together. Pile them into the pastry, dumping any sugar left in the bottom of the bowl overtop. Scatter raspberries overtop.
Roll out the remaining pastry and place it over the pie; trim the edges (both layers) to about 1/2-inch past the edge of the pie plate. Tuck and crimp however you like, using your fingers or the tines of a fork. Cut a few slits in the top to allow steam to escape. If you like, brush the top with milk or cream, and if you like, sprinkle with a spoonful of sugar.
Bake the pie for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350F and bake for another 45-50 minutes, until golden and juices are bubbling out through the slits. Cool on a wire rack.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat the oven to 450F. Line a 9-inch pie plate with pastry, fitting it in without stretching it - let the edges hang over the side.
Slice the apples into a large bowl. In a small bowl, stir together the sugar, flour and salt; add to the apples and toss them together. Pile them into the pastry, dumping any sugar left in the bottom of the bowl overtop. Scatter raspberries overtop.
Roll out the remaining pastry and place it over the pie; trim the edges (both layers) to about 1/2-inch past the edge of the pie plate. Tuck and crimp however you like, using your fingers or the tines of a fork. Cut a few slits in the top to allow steam to escape. If you like, brush the top with milk or cream, and if you like, sprinkle with a spoonful of sugar.
Bake the pie for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350F and bake for another 45-50 minutes, until golden and juices are bubbling out through the slits. Cool on a wire rack.
Drooling….
I may make a peach/raspberry combo and the ice cream is a must…if I can find some more fresh raspberries. Your roasted peach ice cream was a hit here for my daughter’s 1st birthday party (as was your pulled pork, kale/roasted potato salad, etc.)
Just returned from a week on Vancouver Island, including two nights in Tofino. Thanks for all the food recommendations, though we didn’t make SoBo…and I’m still in mourning.
I’m officially asking for an ice cream maker for Christmas! And I’m totally trying out the new pastry recipe. I have a freezer full of Saskatoons begging to be made into a pie! 😉
I’m afraid if I get an ice cream maker I’ll be eating ice cream morning, noon and night (or rather, my hips are afraid). Still, this sounds amazing!
totally drooling…
Your stories have become the highlight of my day….there is something so homey and lovely about your writing and your pictures. Your recipes are always so tasty and not at all pompus or pretentious, just down right good. Thanks so much for sharing!
Still drooling…and staring at apples and raspberries and wishing it wasn’t so hot here! (BC)
Oh pie!
I’m always struck by how shiny and new your baking pans (casserole dishes etc) are. Do you use a new one each time? I can see where it’s an advantage for the photo. Would prefer that to be so, otherwise, I head back to my kitchen a failure, wondering what secret it is that I’m missing, as I ponder that 25 year old pyrex pie plate spattered with pies of yester-year, and the blotchy metal cookie sheet, and … etc.
The steam holes for the top of the pie? So TOTALLY clever! I will be doing that for now and forever more!
Also, raspberry ice cream coming up… now.
My pans are shiny and new! Ha! This blue one is at least 15 years old.. I admit it doesn’t get used a whole lot, but my Pyrex pie plate is used more.. likely the pie is covering any weathered parts? There’s not a lot you can do to Pyrex – have you tried having a go at it with an SOS pad?
Made the ice cream. You are soooo right. I stand in awe (of both you and the ice cream).
Yes I’ve tried, with everything BUT oven cleaner, which another “old” cook tells me will work. But I decided it’s not that important. However, if I was taking pictures for a blog or publication it might be. Seriously I have a 12-inch fluted edge pyrex pie pan that is well, I think 25 years old is conservative, probably more like 35. The only thing in my kitchen that predates it is my pressure cooker which I don’t use but can’t part with. The way we were.
raspberries are better than strawberries! it’s just that people who love them don’t tell anyone, cause then we’d have to share!
Ah hahaha. Pie, pi, 3.14. Funny.
I love pie. There can never be too much. This looks delicious and I will have to try the apple raspberry combo.
It just keeps getting better and better.
Yum! Love the Pi Pie! We just polished off a saskatoon berry pie I sort of baked (I’m still not brave enough to make my own dough, but I’ll get there….eventually)!
Sorry Julie, I’m not anonymous. It’s me!
I can’t imagine a fruit pie without ice cream on top. Although I always reach for the classic vanilla, this ice cream sounds like it complements the pie (ohhh that crust!) so well I’m already thinking of what variation I’ll choose! Love the pi sign on top. Suffice it to say I’m quite the nerd.
Here’s the link for my post on the ice cream. Soooo good. http://bit.ly/bmM3xN
Yum! The first pies I made were apple, raspberry, and peach. With just a touch of almond.
That E is such an awesome sounding girl.
One son was coming for supper, so I made this pie after picking the apples from the tree. Found a frozen bag of raspberries in the freezer, and now this son says it’s now his “all time favorite pie.” Thanks for the recipe.
I usually freeze some strawberries with plain yogurt. This time had no strawberries so had to use raspberries. Wow. Shazam and other hallelujahs. Best yet. With a drizzle of maple syrup and walnuts too; my version of pie.