Pies & Desserts - Mock Apple Pie

It's poetry time again!

Sweets, they say, give energy,
So surely it won't hurt
To ease up on the first course and
Leave room for dessert.

Wrong.  All wrong.  Good sentiment, Ladies, but you can do better.  I prefer chef Jacques Torres's philosophy.

Truth... at least when you're not having dinner with little boys and you must *sigh* set a good example.

The best dessert to eat first, in my opinion is pie.  I love pie.  There are few desserts that are actually bad, but given the choice, I will frequently choose pie.  I love pie so much that Sarah and I are planning our fourth annual Pie-Off.  Here's how it works.  People bring a pie.  We all take time to eat way too much pie.  Then we vote on the best pies for silly categories, e.g. "Pie, It's What's for Dinner", "Impress the Mother-in-Law", "Science!".  Then we have little prizes for the pies that won.  Our Pie-Off is quite possibly the best idea anybody has ever had.  If you're reading this, you're invited.  I'll probably post some more details in a week or two.

Background

I'm making Mock Apple Pie this week.  Sadly, it's not made of mock apples like this.

It is a pie I've heard of a couple times, but have never tried.  Here is the recipe.

We're more than 1/3 the way through the book.

Mock apple pie is one of those recipes that has a history, kind of like lutefisk (found on page 66).  During the depression when people had little money to spare, and World War Two when apples were scarce and expensive, people looked for apple alternatives that they could afford.  How they decided to use soda crackers, I'll never know, but it was definitely an affordable pie filling.  Our cook book being published in 1951 was for people who were certainly familiar with mock apple pie.  Even though apples were more affordable in the post-war years, people still made this pie.  If something is good, why stop making it?  In fact, there continued to be a recipe for mock apple pie on the back of Ritz crackers until the 70s or 80s, I believe.  Perhaps it's absence from those boxes is one reason why we're not as familiar with the pie any longer.

No matter.  Being a history teacher, I am really curious about this recipe and am looking forward to it.

Preparation

The recipe is simple enough:  make crust, fill with crackers and simple syrup, cover with crust, bake.  I've made some fantastic pie crusts and I've made some mediocre pie crusts in the past.  I know it is something that scares a lot of people away from making pie, but that is such a shame because even mediocre pie crust can hold delicious delicious pie filling.  This time, I wanted to try out a new crust recipe since the one I've been using lately has not been as reliable as I'd like.  There were a couple issues with the recipe.  First, it was too small.  I like to have crust to spare, but I was just barely able to get the job done.  It would have been impossible, if I had a big tall mound of actual apples to cover with crust.  Secondly, the recipe was too dry.  The dough kept tearing and wouldn't roll out nicely, so I had to sprinkle some water on top and squish it all together again.  Fortunately, this didn't result in crust that was too tough as often happens when you handle pie crust too much.  Though it could have been better, it certainly could have been worse.  That being said, I'll be looking for a new crust recipe next time.

Not nearly enough to make a tall fluted edge.

 As you can see in the next picture, this is far more than 14 soda crackers.  I feel like I remember seeing soda crackers that were the size of large graham crackers in the past, but I wasn't sure.  A quick internet search didn't help.  As I was putting things together, Sarah looked up another mock apple pie recipe for additional reference.  I'm glad she did.  If I had only added 14 soda crackers, it wouldn't nearly have filled up the pie shell.  I wound up using almost a whole sleeve of crackers in the pie.

This is more soda crackers than I've eaten in the last fifteen years.

Butter makes everything better.

There was one part of the recipe that I was pretty excited about.  It didn't specify amounts of spices to add!  I am happy to add cinnamon and nutmeg in the amounts I would use in an apple pie.  I wound up adding nearly a teaspoon of cinnamon (though I would have added more for an apple pie with apples mounded high) and maybe a quarter of a nutmeg.

I covered the pie and cut holes in the top, then sprinkled sugar and more cinnamon on top.  It was far from the prettiest pie I've made, but it was alright.  You can see where I had to make some repairs to spots where the crust wasn't big enough.  I also wound up baking it for somewhere between 30 and 35 minutes as the Allrecipes recipe suggested instead of what Mrs. Palmer Lorenson listed.  20 minutes seemed to be too short a time.  Glad I had it in longer.  Here's the result.

Not pretty.  Not Ugly.  Edible?

Tasting and Reaction

We had some guests over last night.  Carrie and Joel are good friends who we have over to our place regularly for board games and card games.  Last night we played Carcassonne.  Had we not gotten carried away, we likely would have played pinochle.  We get together to play games and visit every couple weeks or so.  They've been great in coming over to our house every time since it is difficult for us to get out of the house with two little boys, but since they are due to have twins any day now, we're going to have to work out some other arrangement so we can continue our little get-togethers.

Mystery Pie!

Before I served it up, we didn't tell them what the pie was, only that it was from our cook book.  Here's a bunch of the conversation, at least as much as I could keep up with on the computer:

Carrie – It looks appley.

Joel – it’s kind of super-thin slices for apple.

Carrie – it smells like apple with cinnamon.

Sarah – It’s really sweet.

Carrie – My mom used to stir-fry apples with cinnamon and sugar and butter.

Joel – It tastes really good.

Sarah – It’s really sweet. [I guess she thinks it is sweet.]

Carrie – There’s something else in here.  Is it pear?

Sarah – It’s better than I thought it would be.  It beats expectations.

Carrie – It’s good.

Joel – It’s a fruit with a skin.

Carrie – It’s super super mushy though, which makes me think pear.

Joel– What if it’s a squash pie?

Carrie – It’s like baby food.  It’s got a tiny bit of tang to it.

At this point I tell them what was in the pie

Carrie – Are you serious?

Joel – huh.  Weird.

Carrie – what gives it the apple flavor then?  Is it apple sauce?

We talked a bit more, but I wanted to eat instead of type.  We had our pie with whipped cream or ice cream.  Ultimately, we came to the decision that it was pretty good, even if it was kind of strange.  It could even possibly pass as apple pie.  The consistency was puzzling to Carrie and Joel as it was mushier than an apple pie would be.  At the same time though, it was more dense than you might think soggy crackers would be.  The lemon juice added the tartness needed to make the flavor that much more convincing.  I would go so far as to say that this was good pie but I probably wouldn't make it again unless its novelty is called for.  On the other hand, it is sweet and very easy to make so who knows, I may just make it on a whim.

Where does Mrs. Palmer Lorenson's Mock Apple Pie stand in our cook book heirarchy?  I would say that it is right up there with the fresh donuts.  I might even say that it is better than the donuts since more than a couple hours after the donuts were done, they lost their crunchy exterior whereas the pie was still pretty good as dessert for lunch the next day.  Mock Apple Pie brings us to four good recipes in a row!  When starting this blog, I wouldn't have guessed that we would have reached this much deliciousness.  I am afraid though, that Meats & Hot Dishes and Salads are going to be arriving soon though, so that streak will not likely stand for long.

Next time:  Beverages - Egg Milk Shake!