Apple Custard Pie

With Marilynn and Sheila Brass

The Brass Sisters found this recipe written on the back of a private outpatient admitting notification form from Salem Hospital. The recipe was credited to someone named S. Lake. Although it was titled German Apple Pie, they found similar recipes for Swiss Apple Pie and French Apple Pie. They decided to refer to it as Holiday Apple Pie because its not only simple to make and bakes in less than an hour, but it also presents well. To the Brass Sisters, no holiday is complete without a good apple pie.

Ingredients

1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell
4 medium apples, peeled, cored, and cut into thin wedges (enough for two layers)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup heavy cream
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons butter, cut into small dice

Instructions

1. Set the oven rack in the middle position. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Coat 9-inch ovenproof glass pie plate with vegetable spray.
2. Arrange approximately half of apple slices on bottom of piecrust in an overlapping pattern. Sift together sugar, cinnamon and salt. Sprinkle half of cinnamon sugar over apples.
3. Pour heavy cream into 2-cup glass measuring cup. Add eggs and vanilla and beat with a fork or small whisk to combine. Pour half of egg mixture over top of pie. Layer remaining apples in pie and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon sugar. Pour remaining cream mixture over top of pie. Dot with butter.
4. Bake 10 minutes, reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F., and bake 45 minutes more, or until filling bubbles rapidly and edges of crust are nicely browned. Check pie during baking; if crust is browning too quickly, cover loosely with foil. Cool pie on rack at least 2 hours before serving. This pie is best served the day it is baked. Store covered with paper towels and plastic wrap in the refrigerator.

Recipe courtesy of The Brass Sisters, Heirloom Baking, 2006.

Authors of "Heirloom Baking With The Brass Sisters" and "Heirloom Cooking With The Brass Sisters;" â?¨Hosts of "The Brass Sisters: Queens of Comfort Food"

From their web site:

We are two roundish bespectacled women in our sixties who have a combined total of 114 years of home baking and cooking experience. We have always felt comfortable in the kitchen because we learned to bake and cook at a very early age. Our mother, Dorothy, was an inspired home cook, and the meals she produced when we lived on Sea Foam Avenue, in Winthrop, Massachusetts, more than 60 years ago are still memorable.

More than thirty years ago we discovered manuscript cookbooks, those collections of personal recipes compiled by home cooks. Handwritten notes on crumbling scraps of paper or the pages of old, well-worn cookbooks led us to “lost” family recipes. Recipe collections that survived were typically gathered together in small bundles, stitched, tied, stapled, or boxed, and handed down to the next generation. These forgotten bundles of culinary history turn up at yard sales and flea markets, in used bookstores, and on the pantry shelves of friends. Over the years, we have acquired more than 150 of these collections of living recipes.

Writing Heirloom Baking and Heirloom Cooking has been a labor of love. We are dedicated to recovering, updating and — above all — enjoying the best home recipes from America’s past. By presenting these recipes simply and with a contemporary flair, we are hoping to help a new generation of cooks and their families discover and enjoy the special tastes of the culturally diverse American kitchen.