Henry’s Apple Crumb Pie

Okay, this recipe is a piece of my childhood. DH and I grew up in the same neighborhood (and yes, when we were dating we had to skulk around so we wouldn’t be a source of entertainment to the wags of the ‘hood) and due to this, share many food and other memories. This is kinda fun and my brothers’ in law will occasionally give me a look and say, “Remember?” (fill in the blank) and of course, I do. This pie is one of those shared memories. We had a bakery called Henry’s and since it was, to the best of my knowledge, the only kosher bakery in the area, everyone in the community would shop there. There was great wailing and gnashing of teeth when they closed their doors since the baked goods were outstanding. We even remember the green and white string which hung from the ceiling with which they tied up the white bakery boxes. But I digress.

Nobody we knew had the recipes when they closed and I believe my BIL Stu asked his wife Suzy (NOT from the neighborhood but I love her anyway) if she could recreate the recipe. He described it in loving detail and by golly! she did it. I don’t believe she makes it anymore since I won’t lie, it takes time but it is such a delicious pie that it’s truly worth the effort. Only bother to make this for people who will appreciate your work! My hubby, who remembers this pie like it was yesterday, practically had tears in his eyes (I exaggerate but just a tad) and I had to forcibly restrain him from polishing off the whole thing – it was touch and go, I managed to get a few skinny pieces and he hilariously said – hey! I see the pie shrank! Never mind, he was in such a good mood that it did my heart good.

So, know in advance that ya gotta peel 10-12 apples for this and slice ’em up thinnish. Not super skinny since you will be cooking the apples for the filling since apples have this tendency to never really fully soften. In this pie, the apples are soft and almost caramelized in flavor. Please, I beg you, just don’t bother to make it if you’re gonna cheat and use pie filling. The whole beauty of this is the incredible flavor of the filling, trust me.

So gather your ingredients for the crust first, and then we’ll do the crumble topping next (doing both in the food processor – no need to wash in between – although you can do it in the mixer as well) and then you’ll pop them both in the fridge while you prepare the filling. Here’s the crust ingredients:

In a food processor, Place the flour, salt, and sugar and pulse. Add the cubed butter/margarine, egg yolk and water.

Pulse just till dough forms

Pat into disc and press with fingers into a 9 inch springform pan which you both grease well (oil spray) and line with a circle of parchment paper. With your fingers, press crust into bottom of pan and about halfway up the sides of the pan.

Set aside.

In same bowl of processor (no need to clean) place topping ingredients.

pulse just till crumbs form and it looks like this:

place crumbs into bag and put both crust and crumbs into fridge while making filling.

Now take your filling ingredients

Peel, core and slice up your apples and take a large enough pot (4 quarts/liters should do it) , preferably a non-stick pot, and place the sugar (only white sugar for this), cinnamon, grated lemon zest/peel, and the small amount of butter/marg in with it. Do not skip any of these ingredients or it won’t come out properly. Then plunk the sliced apples on top. On medium low heat, start stirring and cooking the apple mixture.

You need to stand on top of this for a bit, till they sink somewhat and keep stirring from the bottom and swirl through so the sugar doesn’t harden on the bottom of the pot. After about five minutes or so, the apples will give up some liquid like so:

and the cinnamon will color it, don’t get nervous about the dark color. K. Keep cooking but once you’re certain the sugar has dissolved, you can cover the pot and tilt the lid to continue cooking down the apples, this can take about ten minutes. Every so often, peek at it and stir from the bottom until the apples get darker and caramelized looking like this:

Now mix together the water and cornstarch (cornflour) till dissolved.

Add the cornstarch mixture to the apple mixture and cook together just till the apples thicken up and the liquid from the apples is absorbed, about 3-4 minutes on medium low flame. Just by the by, the scent of the apples should be driving you crazy by now.

Let the apple mixture cool for at least 5-10 minutes. While cooling, preheat your oven to 350 F/180 C. Remove the crust and crumb mixture from the fridge and we’re gonna put it all together. Pour or scoop (it’s kinda thick) the apple mixture into the crust (remember you already patted it into your springform pan) and pat the apples into a flat layer. There’s a nice amount of filling and it should more or less reach the top of the crust.

Note how the crust sorta peeks out around the edges. Now you’ll understand why it doesn’t go higher since you need the extra room for your crumb topping. If the topping is not so crumbly, squeeze between your fingers to make more crumbs and sprinkle evenly over the top, it’s a decent amount and you will have full coverage of the apples.

When nearly done, it should look like so:

K. Into the hot oven it goes. Set a timer but ya got time, it takes between an hour to an hour and ten minutes and the top of the pie gets a light to medium golden color. Let cool completely on a wire rack. To serve, take a sharp knife and gently run around the edge of the crust to make sure it’s not stuck (which it won’t be if you greased it properly). Then open the springform pan and slide onto a cake plate. The sides of the cake should be a lovely brown crust. A wonderful pie any time of day or night, put your kettle on the boil or go with the kid in you and have it with a cold glass of milk.

Henry’s Apple Crumb Pie

For the crust:

2 cups (250 grams) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2/3 cup (151 grams) margarine/butter, cut into cubes
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons water

Crumb Topping:

6 tablespoons (85 grams) butter/margarine
12 tablespoons (144 grams) white sugar (do not use brown sugar)
3/4 cup (94 grams) ap flour

Filling:

10 – 12 apples (if large 10, if medium 11-12), peeled, cored and sliced thin
1 cup (200 grams) white sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
grated lemon zest/peel of one lemon (optional but definitely worth adding)
scant 2 tablespoons (25 grams) butter/margarine
3 tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour)
3 tablespoons water

Directions:

In a food processor (or mixer) combine the flour, salt, sugar and blitz briefly. Add the margarine, egg yolk and water and pulse together just until dough comes together. Don’t overdo, it will toughen the crust. Remove from processor, pat into disc take a 9 inch springform pan, grease very well and lay a piece of parchment circle on it and using your fingers, press crust into bottom and sides of the pan coming up the sides about halfway, perhaps a drop less. Set aside. In same processor (no need to clean it out) place margarine, white sugar and flour and pulse very briefly just till you get crumbs. Check by opening lid and pinching together to see if crumbs hold together. Place in separate small bowl or bag and pop both into the fridge.

For filling, take a four quart (liter) pot (preferably non-stick) and place the sugar, cinnamon, lemon zest, butter/margarine and apples into pot. Bring pot to low simmer, stirring apples about till they start to give up some liquid and making sure the sugar doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. You can now cover the pot and the apples should start to cook down and compact a bit and get a darker somewhat caramelized look to them. This takes about ten minutes or so. Stir together the cornstarch and the water till smooth and add all at once to the apples and stir and cook together till liquid from apples thickens about 3-4 minutes or so. Remove from fire and let cool, at least 5-10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C. Take the crust and crumb topping out of the fridge and pour apple mixture into crust, patting evenly. Top with crumbs and cover apple filling. Place in oven (I recommend placing a parchment sheet lined pan beneath your springform to prevent leakage in the oven) and bake for an hour to an hour and ten minutes or till topping is a deep golden color. Remove and let cool on a wire rack. Run a thin blade between crust and sides of pan and make sure it’s not stuck to sides (carefully) and remove sides of pan. Slide onto platter (you don’t even have to remove the cake from the bottom of the pan) and serve.