Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Apple pie

Here in the Northeast, it is time for apple picking and apple chewing and the smell of baking apples and warm pastry and a hint of cinnamon.

How blogs connect people: a few days ago I received an email from Lily, a Cape Town blogger, apropos of a comment I left on her blog about the bread at the Matjiesfontein Hotel. In her email were scans of clippings of recipes she had saved from the late 90's, from a House and Leisure magazine. She said: I've had this recipe clipping from a House and Leisure since 1996....it has three of my favourite recipes.

The recipes she sent were for Lamb with a Spoon, Molly Bolt's apple pie, and Phillida's bread, from the Matjiesfontein Hotel.

All three recipes are Maureen Viljoen's, published when she was the food editor of House and Leisure. And she is my mother. Lily, my emailer, had no idea.

Click on the recipe to enlarge.

I grew up with Molly Bolt's apple pie. Its pastry is delicious, soft yet crunchy, and its apples simply allowed to be apples, with none of the sticky goop that one so often finds beneath an apple pie's crust. So there it is, fresh from its 1996 clipping. I remember my mother adding raisins to it, and,  independently of each other, Lily and I add raisins, and cinnamon, too.

If you add raisins, it's a quarter cup, sprinkled on the cooked apples before you put the pie crust lid on. And a pinch of cinnamon.  You can also substitute self rising flour for the flour plus baking powder mixture. Needless to say,  I use butter - this recipe is a child of the 70's. My father still prefers margarine on his toast and bread, convinced by propaganda that transfats are better for his heart. 

I wonder when that class action lawsuit will hit.

I made this pie with Spartan apples from the Carroll Gardens Farmers' Market, open on Sundays on Carroll Street between Court and Smith.

13 comments:

  1. Hoe lieflik. En ek love die storie ook.

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  2. What a nice story! I love how life works.

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  3. "We are all connected..."
    Lovely tale. And pie!

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  4. Definitely going to try this. Hope I can convert correctly. Why, or why, did we never go metric?

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  5. How beautiful! Thanks for sharing!

    Maria

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  6. Lovely story, even lovelier pie.

    I would like a slice right now.

    xo jane

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  7. I'm going to bake that tonight. Don an apron and everything! Sweet story too.x

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  8. Marie, I just made it. First time I have ever made my own pastry (for shame!), and it is amazing! Worked a treat - lovely crumbley rich pastry and luscious warm appley midddle. Again thanks for a great recipe that has made my kitchen a bit yummier! x

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  9. webb, sorry about the metric - my scale does both.

    Belinda, congratulations! I am so happy that you made it :-)

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  10. Wonderlik! Hou van sulke half rustic pasteie :) Wou jou ook gevra het - ek gaan die kos deel van jou blog ook by die SA Food & Wine Blog Directory voeg - kan ek vir jou die vrae stuff vor die "spotlight" post? Het net jou adres nodig.

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  11. Lily - my mother says thanks for the scans of the clippings of her recipes - she is using your clipping of her lamb with a spoon, because her recipe (in a book) is too splattered after all these years. No, I also don't know why she still needs the recipe :-) It's all very funny and nice.

    Jeanne - lekker.

    marieyviljoen(at)gmail(dot)com

    That address? :-)

    Off to make some spinach malfatti, now...

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