Apple Pie | Ask an Expert
WRITTEN BY
Annie Wu
Rebecca Bloom, owner of Piedaho, grew up baking pies for her grandfather, who loved pumpkin pie.
The Fall Harvest—in a Pie Why we celebrate the fall bounty by baking apple pie and embracing other fruits of the season
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s American as apple pie. It’s an expression commonly used to describe something that completely encapsulates the American character. But surprisingly, the kinds of apples we commonly see in our markets and grocery stores are not actually indigenous to the United States. The crab apple is the only species in the genus Malus that is native to North America;
One of Piedaho’s intricately designed pies.
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it was English settlers who brought cultivated apple seeds with them. According to the University of Illinois, the first apple trees were planted by pilgrims in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Americans soon started grafting different cultivars, and today, there are roughly 2,500 varieties grown in the country. Meanwhile, the earliest forms of pie were oblong—meant to transport food
easily and preserve food for longer periods in the age before refrigeration. The crust was often inedible. The first truly American apple pie recipe appeared in “American Cookery,” by Amelia Simmons, published in 1796. The cookbook is considered to be the first to use ingredients and cooking techniques distinct from the English tradition. True to American taste, the recipe called for cinnamon and mace— the outer covering of nutmeg—as spices. Expressing Ourselves Why did the apple pie become America’s signature dessert and a symbol of Americana? Ken Haedrich, author of several pie cookbooks, including the most recent “Pie Academy,” believes the versatility of the pie is a reflection of America’s love for self-expression. “We’re all cowboys, you know. We like to do our own thing. And an apple pie is great for that. You can use virtually any type of apple that you want, any type of sweetening, any type of thickener, you can put a top crust or no crust, you can put a crumb topping,” explained Haedrich, who describes himself as a “pie apostle” and runs an online forum devoted to helping bakers with pie-related quandaries. “I think this is one of the things that has made apple pie the quintessential American pie—the fact that we can shape it into anything we want it to be.” Pie is not only an expression of individual personality but also of America’s different regional attributes. In parts of New England where there is a lot of dairy production, a tradition emerged to place a slice of cheddar cheese on top of apple pie. “You start to get this confluence of regional ingredients with apples, AMERI CAN ESSE NCE
And in Indiana, the Hoosier sugar and you’re going to find that in every part of the country. They will have their cream pie—made simply of cream, sugar, flour, and spices—emerged during lean own sort of variations of apple pies times when eggs and fresh ingredients based on what else grows there or the area is known for,” Haedrich explained. were not available, explained Capri Cafaro, cookbook author and host of Some in New England also use “Eat Your Heartland Out,” a podcast maple syrup as a sweetener, while in on Midwestern food traditions. “We’re parts of the country with large Amish dealing with ingredients that […] could communities, such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, and other parts of the Midwest, apple custard pies are common due to their dairy farming. But there are other fruits of the harvest represented through pie. In the South, pecan pie is the ultimate fall dessert as the nuts are harvested during that season. In the Pacific Northwest, Rebecca Bloom, founder of the Piedaho Bakery based in Hailey, Idaho, throws in cranberries with local Jonathan and Jonagold apples and thyme for a fall treat. The pie company also uses flash-frozen berries from Washington in pies that are served throughout the fall and winter. Bloom loves the wild huckleberries that grow in Idaho, but she has yet to find a way to source them adequately to make pie—though she hopes “one day maybe we will find a treasure trove of them!” ISSUE 5 | OC TOB ER 20 21
be utilized […] with the resources available to people,” she said. Also in the Midwest, other types of pie became popular due to the waves of immigrants who settled in the region and introduced their culinary traditions, explained Cafaro. In the Upper Peninsula region of Michigan, handheld pies called pasties reign supreme. They are typically Pie is a reflection of the American penchant for selfexpression.
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