A new apple product! “Live” Apple Pie

  The apple tree in the backyard of my childhood home in Atlanta, Georgia produced apples so tart they made your face pucker.  Small, green and generally hard as a rock, they made a surprisingly good apple pie, proving that enough sugar and butter can make most anything taste delicious.

Our next door neighbor, a half mile away, loved these pies that my Mom baked and is the one who named it “live” apple pie. Since everyone loves apple products these days, I thought about renaming it the “IPie” but decided to stick with the old name.  It’s a good one.  The tart, fresh taste of those apples in the crisp, sweet cinnamony topping is as alive for me today as it was decades ago.

Of course now we have many different kinds of apples to choose from.  For my taste, there is not a better eating apple than ‘HoneyCrisp.’  It packs a honey sweet goodness with just the right crunch.

I am not alone in my love of ‘Honeycrisp’.  Since it’s introduction to the market in 1961, it has become the best selling apple and is the most planted variety in Washington State, the “Apple Capitol” of the United States.  Due to a genetic variation, the cells of this apple are twice the size of other apples, giving it the characteristic cr..r…r..unch.   This variety is difficult to grow, is easily bruised and has a short harvest season, only between September and early December.

The popularity and accompanying high price tag (‘Honeycrisps can cost as much as twice as much as other apple varieties) led breeders to develop other “crisp” varieties including “CrimsonCrisp’, ‘GoldCrisp’, ‘CosmicCrisp’, and ‘EverCrisp.’

I’m grateful for the high falutin’ breeding that brings me the ‘Crisp’ family which restored my faith in apples after years of eating nearly tasteless ‘RedDelicious’ and I’m happy that there are now many good baking apples.  But in my mind, nothing I buy at the super market can compare to the memory of those tart green apples picked right off the tree and baked into Mom’s “live apple pie.”

This is the easiest, fastest and most delicious pie recipe I know of. More of an apple crisp than a true pie, this recipe has been passed down for four generations in our family.  Enjoy – and pass it on!

Live Apple Pie    Serves 4 – 6

3 – 4 tart green baking apples, such as ‘GoldCrisp’

1 stick butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon (or more!)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Peel and slice apples (about 12 -16 slices / apple) place in a 9 inch pie pan.

Mix together sugar, flour, salt and butter, making coarse crumbs.  (You can do this in a food processor, pulsing 10 – 12 times.) Do not overmix or make it too smooth, you want small chunks of butter.

Sprinkle the dry mixture over the apples, sprinkle with the cinnamon.

Place in oven and bake about 15 minutes then lower temperature to 375 and bake another 30 – 35 minutes or until apples are soft when poked with a fork.  If the top begins to brown too much, cover with foil to continue baking.  The apples should be thoroughly cooked and the topping a delicious, crispy brown when baked.

Serve with vanilla ice cream or sweetened whipped cream.

Yum.