Thursday, January 17, 2019

McCall's French Apple Pie





  This is Gabe's all time favorite apple pie.  Made it for him many times and now I want to share the recipe.

I bought McCall's Cooking School magazine about 40 years ago. During my work lunch breaks I would looks around in the local magazine shop. Forty years later the magazine moved with us and still love recipes in it.

Gabe enjoys apple pie but loved his grandmothers pie. I never got to meet her so unfortunately I couldn't get her recipe. When I made this pie Gabe told me it was close to what his grandmother use to make- huge win in my book.



 INGREDIENTS:

1 pastry for double-crust pie


CUSTARD
1⁄3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
3 egg yolks
1 tablespoon butter or 1 tablespoon margarine
1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract

APPLE FILLING
2 lbs. tart cooking apples
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons butter or 2 tablespoons margarine
2 tablespoons sugar
1 dash ground nutmeg
3⁄4 cup apricot preserves

1 egg yolk

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Line a 9 inch pie dish with 12 inch circle of the pie pastry.



Set aside remaining pastry. You might want to pop it in fridge until ready to use.

To make custard: In a small saucepan, combine 1/3 cup sugar and the flour; mix well.
Stir in milk.
bring to a boil, stirring; reduce heat; simmer, stirring until slightly thickened, about 1 minute.

In a bowl, beat 3 egg yolks slightly.
Beat some of the hot mixture into yolks.
Pour back into the saucepan, stirring.
Add 1 tablespoon butter and the vanilla.
Turn into a bowl to cool.

Apple filling: Core, pare and slice the apples, sprinkle with lemon juice.
In a skillet, heat the butter with the sugar and nutmeg.
Add the apples; saute, stirring occasionally.
Cook until almost tender- about 5 minutes.
Remove from heat.
Melt apricot preserves in a little saucepan and set aside.


Assembly: Pour the custard into the pie shell, spreading evenly.
Arrange the apple slices on top, mounding slightly in the center and only adding a little of the juices released from cooking them.
Spread with the melted apricot preserves.

Roll out the rest of the pastry dough to make a 10 inch circle.
Cut into 12 strips, 1/2 inch wide.
Moisten the edge of the pastry shell with a little water.
Arrange six pastry strips across the filling; press ends to rim of pie shell; trim ends if necessary.
Arrange rest of strips at a right angle to the first strips, to form a lattice.
Bring overhang of the pastry up over ends of strips; crimp edge.
Mix egg yolk with 1 tablespoon of water and brush on pastry.

Bake 40 minutes, or until golden

3 comments:

  1. You know a magazine is good when 40 years have passed and it's still with you! Man I miss those magazine shops and good cooking magazines in general. I LOVED coming home with one and digging into it. There were SO many good ones back in the day.

    That pie looks delicious, Linda. I've never made an apple pie with custard in it....how interesting! So glad it turned out to be close to what Gabe remembered his Grandmother making-how cool is that???? DEFINITELY a win!

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  2. When I bought it I thought 2.50 was a lot to spend on a magazine. Woman's Day and Family Circle were 49 cents. Now cooking magazines are what-over 10 dollars!

    I use to make it a lot back home, first time making it down here. Loaded it up with apples as you can see.

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  3. Wow, this pie looks so professional and I can imagine tasted wonderful. So nice that Gabe remembered the taste of his grandmother's pie. If I had saved all my cooking magazines, I would have a treasure trove. 2.50 was a lot of money 40 years ago. You saved the best.

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