American as Apple Pie!

I understand after years of living in England where Americans get their love of apple pie from but I have to say we improved it immensely. I was quite disappointed when I first moved here to and found out that the English variety of apple pie was very tart and absolutely no spices. Imagine – the spice trade made England yet it uses so little in their foods. Most strange......

So imagine how popular my apple pies were when I made them for a friend who ran a cafe. They always sold out and what is even more amazing...I hate pie crust or did, I should say. I never was a pie person – each year I’d eat the filling but leave the crust as most I found to be horrid and bland tasting. It wasn’t until I’d been asked to make them that I said ‘I don’t make pie crust often but I’ll give it a go.’

So with that I soon learned how to make a successful and even tasty crust. But it ultimately was the filling that won people over – it seems that American Apple Pie is a big hit in England. Fancy that!

So for Thanksgiving this year since I didn’t obtain my usual pumpkin reduced (usually I get one the day after Halloween but this year wasn’t able to do that) and I thought time for a change. Usually it’s always the traditional – pumpkin or sweet potato and while those are nice – sometimes you have to shake it up. So in came the apple and of course it ran into a lemon, some zest, a bit of sugar along with some wonderful spices cinnamon, nutmeg and a bit of clove; add an all-butter crust and well you have a wonderful dessert!
This is a picture of the filling and the crust that I rolled out – ready to top the lovely filling. I then brushed it with some water and sprinkled some sugar on top along with some nutmeg which I had grated for the pie but ended up having too much for the filling thought it would flavour the crust. Also I must admit when I make crust – depending on it being savoury or sweet I added a bit of vanilla sugar to the mixture – wonderful! This is the final product both before oven and after. It certainly was lovely and I made a nice custard sauce to go over it as well – something that as Americans we should have kept from the English. They certainly do know how to top their puddings! Enjoy!