
I've always loved apples - I'm thankful they grow among us here in the Deep South. There were some beautiful trees at my aunt Pernie's place just north of Haleyville, where I spent some of my awkward youth. Each season brought lots of fried pies (see recipes, below), apple cobblers, and lots of late summer evenings spent on the porch with a bowl of sliced up apples to enjoy fresh. I loved those apple trees. As far as I knew, they were never sprayed, pruned, or otherwise managed. My uncle Grady had planted them years before in a corner of the yard and they were mostly forgotten. I don't know what kind of apples they were, but they were sweetish, slightly tart, easily bruised, very dark red, with white flesh that would stain pink when bitten. Heavenly apples very unlike the waxed, boring, perfect, near-tasteless ones you'll find at most supermarkets (and shipped all the way from New Zealand, no less, to no good purpose!). Years later while living in England I chanced upon a local variety – there is an extraordinary number of local varieties there, considering the small size of the country – at the Cambridge Botanic Gardens that was very similar. It was a kind of York apple, so that's what I'm calling our old apples. Sadly, new owners of the old home place have cut the trees down. A sin, obviously. On the positive side, there are a fair number of growers in our region dedicated to preserving and propagating old southern apple varieties. Get ahold of Lee Calhoun's well-known book
Old Southern Apples or have a chat with Arlie Powell at
Petals from the Past to get yourself an education on the subject. We're putting in more trees this winter on our place, which I'm very excited about.
Sometime back in November, Sara and I made our way up to
Steele Orchard in Cullman and came home with 5 or so bushels of apples, a few gallons of cider, and a bellyful of yummy fried pies. The first fruit we'd had in a while, since our frozen blueberries, strawberries, peaches, and blackberries had given out in October. We also bought an old cider press from a man in Dora on the way back home. Those of y'all who joined us at our party were sipping cider from our first two batches, the first of many. I've been making loads of apple pies lately, also, so many that Sara fed the last one to the dog. Apples keep well, can be preserved (perhaps most easily as frozen apple sauce), and are always a good snack. Our pig enjoys the cores. In short, we're in favor of them, in moderation of course. And what's better than a big slice by the roaring fire, topped off with some ice cream from
Wright Dairy? I'll tell you: nothing.
Alabama Apple Pie and I shut my mouth
Crust2 cups unbleached white flour from Elmore County, ground by Joe at
Oak View Granary½ cup butter from
Wright Dairy whole milk (if substituting, that's "two sticks")
6 tablespoons cold water
1 egg from Bryson Farm, McCalla (exit 106 off I20/59 between B'ham and Tuscaloosa; call Bob Bryson at 205-477-4649 or 205-907-2807)
Filling6-8 golden delicious apples from Steele Orchard, cored and sliced
½ cup molasses
½ cup
Hewett's Honey or Reeder's Honey purchased from
Red RainNutmeg and cinnamon to taste (not from Alabama, but tasty additions)
Making the crust, or at least, how I make it: search internets for alternatives
Butter a 9-inch pie dish. Put flour and butter in a mixing bowl and mash with a fork until all the butter is chopped to little pieces and mixed in well with the flour. Add in the water to make your dough. Roll this out on a floured surface with a rolling pin (a wine bottle works as well if you don't have a pin). Roll this out until to your desired thickness. Now you'll cut out a circular piece of dough that's bigger by 1 inch than your pie tin/dish, and transfer the dough gently by spatula to the buttered dish. You should have a lot of dough left on the surface; after you've added the filling you can cut this into strips and lay it on top. Once you've done that you can brush on a beaten egg to make the crust crispy and brown.
Making the fillingPut your sliced apples, molasses, honey, and spices in a mixing bowl and stir it around. Voilà ! You have your filling. Dump this into your crust, top with strips of dough, and brush with beaten egg.
Bake on 350F for about 40 minutes. Once the crust is golden brown, it's done.
Fried pie variationMake the dough and the filling as above. Bake the filling for 30 minutes to cook the apples. Now take 5-6 inch circles of dough, add in some filling, and fold over and crimp. Now you have roughly semicircular pies perfect for the fryer or skillet. You can fry them in canola oil or butter, or even better: local Alabama peanut oil.
Can anyone down around Enterprise tell us how to get a hold of some? We know it exists! NB: olive oil doesn't work well for frying pies, for some reason.
Apple Butter, from The Foxfire Book"Peel and slice apples, and immediately place them in a pan of cold, salty water so they won't turn brown. Then rinse the salt out and cook the apples until soft and mushy. Add one cup sugar to every cup of cooked apples, cinnamon to taste, and cook until thick. Put in jars and seal."
A few places to get apples or apple trees in AlabamaPetals from the Past, Jemison: we got a few heirloom trees from them last year
Steele Orchard, Cullman: friendly folks with a wonderful onsite store
Scott's Orchard, Hazel GreenPepper Orchard, Athens, 256-230-6029
Old Southern Apples Nusery, Oxford
If anyone else knows of others, post a comment!We're also all hoping that a new owner will revitalize the impressive orchards of Classical Fruits in Moulton, an Alabama institution for many years that's now fallen on hard times due to the death of the owner. There are hundreds of trees there – probably dozens of varieties of apples, including Arkansas Blacks, Pippins, and others, and other fruits besides – but no caretaker. Venture capitalists: take note.
Expect to be overcome with a giddy, crazed feeling as you wait the eternity it takes for your pie to cool enough to eat.