Apple Custard Pie

I wanted to make an apple pie tonight but didn’t feel like anything as heavy as two crusts. Yet, I didn’t want to just make a crisp or cobbler either. I thumbed through a few apple pie recipes, having some vague memory of a one crust pie I’d seen with some sort of custard. I saw one for a ricotta apple pie, but opted for an apple custard pie I saw in Better Homes & Garden New Cookbook, one of my old standbys.

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Apple Custard Pie

This single crusted apple pie has a light custard that binds the apples together.

Ingredients

Pie Crust

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 4-5 Tbs cold water

Pie Filling

• 6-8 tart apples peeled and sliced
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 Tablespoons flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup light cream or half and half
• cinnamon

Instructions

Pie Crust

• Mix the flour and salt together, then cut in the shortening. You can do this in the food processor or a stand mixer or by hand. Add the cold water and mix just until it has blended in. Roll out the pie crust and lay it in a 9″ pie pan. Trim any overhang. Create a pretty border by pinching the edge between your thumb and finger all the way around if you’d like.

Pie

• Preheat the oven to 375F.
• Peel, core and thinly slice the apples, adding to the pie dough until the apples are nicely mounded. (They’ll shrink down as they cook.)
• In a small bowl, combine the sugar, flour and salt and mix well, then stir in the cream. Pour this over the apples.
• Sprinkle the apples with ground cinnamon.
• Cover the pie loosely with foil and bake for 1 hour.
• Take the foil off and bake another 15 minutes, until the apples are done. (Test this with a paring knife. It should go in easily.)

This was really good. The custard-like stuff with the apples is fairly light, certainly lighter than a second crust would be. Definitely a repeat!