French Apple Pie

French vs Dutch or American apple pie

How can you tell the difference between a French, Dutch or American apple pie? Well, the short answer is the crust. The American has the flaking pie crust on bottom and top. The Dutch typically has a sweet crumbly topping. The French usually has exposed fruit with no top crust. While the fillings of Dutch and American or normally just apples, sugar and spice, the French may contain raisins and cherries. So, what we’ll bake today is actually a hybrid of Dutch and French. And if you make it with American apple varieties, you can consider it a fusion recipe.

How do you like them apples?

Did you know that there are over 7,500 varieties of apples grown globally. For thousands of years, apples have been part of food culture. The once “forbidden fruit” of Eden was later considered a remedy “to keep the doctor away”. Prior to (alcohol) prohibition between 1920 and1933, a major portion of the US apple crop was used to produce hard cider. Nowadays, apple growers select breeds for a variety of purposes. This includes hard and non-alcoholic cider, wine, juice, butter, cooking apples and raw eating apples.

Choosing the right apples

Select some cooking or baking apples from among an extensive list of varieties available, depending on where you live. Some varieties are also trademarked for sale in certain markets. Apples vary from tart to sweet with some sweetening as they ripen. Non-trademarked, heirloom or widely available varieties, ranked from tart to sweet are Granny Smiths, Braeburn, McIntosh, Empire, Spartan, Courtland, Gala, and Golden Delicious.

Some varieties soften during baking while others will keep their shape. My preference is for apples that are soft and sweet after baking. I found that Courtland and Spartan are two varieties that gave me the desired result. But there are so many more that I haven’t tried yet.

Raisins and cherries

For the cherries, use a sweet, pitted variety. For the raisins, plumper is better. The trick is to soak them in a bowl of water first. Do this while prepping the apples. Then drain them before mixing them in with the other ingredients.

The pie shell and crumbly topping

If you’re not a huge fan of making pie crusts, this recipe lets you off the hook by using a crumbly topping and a store-bought shell. Because most store-bought shells come in flimsy tins that are not really deep enough for this recipe, I prefer to remove the pie tin and fit the crust into a cake tin. I first apply a non-stick spray, then fit the crust to the sides, add the filling then top with the crumbly crust. You might want to put a cookie sheet on the rack below the pie just in case any juices run over during baking. That’s a lesson that I learned the hard way.

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More classic desserts

• Queen Elizabeth Cake
• Granny’s Butter Tarts
• Pouding Chomeur (Poor Man’s Pudding)
• Old Fashioned Raisin Pie