I had promised Chicken Arrabiata (angry in Italian) for this week’s column, but July 4th popped up out of nowhere and you have to go with the flow. The chicken can’t get any angrier than he already is and will have to wait to be put in the pot until next week.
July 4th celebrations only swing around once a year, and as I’m a currently active chef, cooking for the needs of an ‘Official’ American employer, traditional apple pie will always be on the July 4th menu, particularly if there are guests for dinner.
Apples baked in some form of dough are common enough and have been around for a very long time. The Teutonic peoples have the strudel, the French Tatin sisters gave the French Republic the tarte tatin, the apple pie laurels go to England and when the English moved to the Americas they took their apple trees with them.
The story of Adam and Eve is often graphically told with an image of Eve seducing Adam with a red juicy apple. Those images are wrong. The Hebrew Bible doesn’t mention the apple once in all of its five books and the tool of seduction was most likely a fig from the same tree they plucked the fig leaves from to cover their nether regions.
In fact, the origin of the apple in the garden of Eden can be traced back to 382 AD when Pope Damasus I requested that Jerome, the Byzantine scholar of his day, translate the Hebrew Bible into Latin. Jerome translated the Hebrew word pri (fruit) into the Latin malum (apple). From this point on, Eve was always portrayed with an enticing apple in her hand in the world of religious art, the only form of visual media available throughout the world for the first 1600 years AD.
The apple originated, so the DNA science folk tell us, somewhere in Central Asia, most likely Kazakhstan, and then developed into what we know today while moving west from there.
The brand new ‘Americans’, it appears, planted the apple trees in their adopted home principally for the purpose of making apple cider, a popular alcoholic beverage of the time. Cultivating apples apparently was much cheaper and easier than growing barley and hops to make beer. Something was needed to take the edge off the day for the early American settler and apple cider was the chosen poison.
“As American as Apple Pie” became part of American culture in the twentieth century, being used as an expression of patriotism and pride. It first appeared in advertising in the early twenties and by World War Two had become a common phrase used by US servicemen in newsreels when asked what they were fighting for: ‘Mom and Apple Pie’.
Well, there’s a thing.
Apple pie. Photo credit The BFD. 
These were so tasty there was nothing left to capture on the plate in about 10 seconds flat. The BFD
Apple Pie
Pie crust ingredients:
- Flour 400 gram
- Confectioner’s sugar 160 gram
- Almond flour 60 gram
- Salt 4 gram
- Cubed butter 240 gram
- Eggs 80 gram
Method:
Put flour, almond flour, confectioner’s sugar and salt into mixer and with paddle attachment mix for a minute. Add cubed butter and let mix until the mixture becomes like rough sand (le sable in French).
Add the eggs, and the dough mixture will come together in a few seconds or quite quickly. As soon as it comes together turn off the mixer. Don’t over-mix, as the dough loses its consistency and strength quickly and this kind of dough is heavy and can easily burn out your mixer’s motor. Wrap in Glad Wrap and set aside in the fridge for at least half an hour to rest.
Take two pieces of baking paper, place one on the benchtop, sprinkle flour on the paper, place the dough on the floured paper, sprinkle flour on the dough, place the second piece of baking paper on the floured dough and with the rolling pin start to roll out the dough.
As you roll you will have to lift the paper and add flour, flip the dough with the paper lift the paper and sprinkle flour, work until you get to a 3 mm thickness.
If you are making small personal individual apple pies, cut out pieces slightly larger than your pie pan size. Whatever size or shape you make, ensure the rolled out dough is slightly larger than the size of the pie pan.
Lightly sprinkle flour on the base of the pie pan, place the dough inside the pan and with your fingers get the fit you want and cut off any excess. The dough is now ready to receive the filling.
Apple filling ingredients (for 20 cm pie pan):
- Granny Smith apple peeled and cored x 600 gram
- Sugar x 150 gram
- Corn flour x 40 gram
- Lemon juice x 50 gram
- Orange juice x 50 gram
- Sultana x 50 gram
- Walnuts chopped x 50 gram
Method:
Mix apple and sugar in a pot on low flame for 10-15 minutes. Cook in own juices to reduce, mix cornflour and the two juices (lemon and orange) together and then pour over the apples and sugar. Mix while still cooking until it thickens, add sultanas and chopped walnut and turn off gas.
Building the apple pie:
- Egg x 1
- A spot of water to mix with egg
Spoon the apple filling into the pie shell of your chosen size. With what is left over of the dough cut into strips one centimetre wide to an appropriate length and place on top of the filling creating a lattice pattern of dough as in the pictures.
Cut off excess and press the strips lightly onto the edge of the dough in the pie shell. Brush egg mixture over the dough strips and around the edge, place in pre heated oven to 180 Celsius and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and ready.
Leave to cool before devouring with ice cream or whipped cream.
Next week, back to that angry ‘chook’, who will be the main feature of our Chicken Arrabiata dish. Promise.
Ciao.
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