With the holidays coming up quickly it might be a good idea to plan a few dessert ideas. In my experience nobody passes on a piece of apple pie, and anyone who goes to the trouble of making one will make a lot of friends. And as an apple grower, Chef Jerry Pellegrino takes pie making very seriously.
Al has a little ritual that he does every couple of years or so: he goes to the Farmers Market and selects four different varieties of apples, most of which he’s never heard of, and whips up four tiny apple pies to taste test them. And with the hundreds of varieties out there, he’s got a lot of room to taste test for the next 80 years.
As Jerry points out, if you’re going to make a pie with more than one variety, you need to think about balancing the flavors. Because some are naturally really sweet, and some are naturally very tart, so a blend of those flavors works out the best. And you should also take the texture of the apple into account, because some stay nice and firm through baking, but others quickly can get mushy. And that’s why some apples are great for making apple sauce and apple butter, but not so great for pies.
Here are this year’s contestants. We started off with one we’d never seen, the Motsu Crispin…which sounds like the name of a renegade hacker in a graphic novel! It’s a green apple that originated in Japan. Next, we tried a new one for me, the Rosalee, which is a cross between a Fuji and a Honeycrisp. Nice parents, huh? Then we tried one called Summerset, and finally we re-visited an old favorite, that celebrated Honeycrisp we just mentioned.
The question always comes up, how do we slice them up. If you’re using one variety, it’s OK to cut them up chunky; but if you’re working on a blend, it’s better to slice them thin so that it’s more likely that you will get all the different types in one bite.
Al cut them up and kept them separate. Then he sprinkled in just a tablespoon of brown sugar to enhance the flavor.
And the results? The Motsu Crispin was moderately sweet, had mild tartness, a firm texture, and good crunch after baking. It is very useful. Next, we tried the Rosalee, and were impressed. Again, moderate sweetness, very good tartness, a slightly softer texture that held up well to baking. It has a lot going for it.
The Summerset is a nice apple for eating, but not too impressive in a pie. Sort of non-descript. But the Honeycrisp is still a superstar. Great flavor, nice and sweet, but with an amazingly sophisticated tartness to it, very complex. So, it would be the star of any pie.
A good variety would be Honeycrisp, Motsu Crisp and perhaps one Granny Smith for every other two apples to ensure tartness.
In our opinion, if you’ve selected apples with a whole lot of flavors, you really don’t need a lot of sugar. Now we will say that sugar, and we like brown sugar, does bring out the flavors a bit, but it’s perfectly correct to let the natural sweetness of the apple talk for itself.
Some of the other favorites include some of the classic old-school varieties: Braeburn, Northern Spy, and Winesap, just to name a few.
And although it is laudable to make your own crust from scratch, there are a lot of very good ready made pie crusts available at the store. They do save time.
And finally, the really good news: apples keep very well after they are picked, so your local orchardman will have them on sale for the rest of the year, easily. There is plenty of time to go shopping and make up a few apple pies for friends and family.
