Apple Cranberry Sour Cream Pie
Center City Philadelphia of the 1980’s had a wealth of very good restaurants. For classic French cuisine, there was Le Bec Fin and La Panetière. In Season and Friday Saturday Sunday (still in existence) featured innovative American menus. The Garden in a beautiful townhouse on Spruce, offered country French cooking with a bit of nouvelle influence. For seafood there was The Fish Market.
Frog offered fusion cuisine before it was a term, bringing Asian influences into its kitchen. Old Original Bookbinders was the place for college students to bring visiting parents for classic American seafood dishes and turtle soup. Out at UPenn in West Philadelphia, there was La Terrace’s Mediterranean offerings. For casual eats, there was (and still is) Sassafras bar/restaurant in Old City that featured a killer Poivre burger.
Among the most unique restaurant concepts, was The Commissary, the brainchild of the team behind Frog. The Commissary was essentially an upscale cafeteria, where you picked up a blue tray and slid it along a brass rail to select your food. At the end of the line was the dessert section, where their Apple Sour Cream Pie was a fixture on the dessert table.
They published the recipe in a handout, and later in their excellent cookbook. I forgot how good this is after not having made it in years. The sour cream custard, infused with a hint of vanilla, lemon, and pie spices, envelops the apple slices in creamy goodness. The crisp walnut streusel topping complements the custard and the fruit perfectly. Unlike traditional fruit pies, this one slices beautifully.
The pie’s components can easily be prepared ahead of time. A suggested work schedule:
- Up to five days ahead – make the P¢te Bris©e or purchase pie shell or pie dough.
- Day before: Roll out the pie dough / make the streusel topping / make and refrigerate the custard.
- Day of: Prebake pie shell / Slice apples, bake the pie.
In the version below, I use a small amount of cranberry with the apples to provide seasonal color. I recently made it with just cranberries. It was a hit, with one friend commenting on the lovely taste sensation of the sweet topping contrasting with the tart berries.
Apple Cranberry Sour Cream Pie
| Yield: 9-inch pie | # of Servings: 10 |
Ingredients:
P¢te Bris©e 2, or store-bought pie dough or pie shell
Walnut Streusel Topping
- â…“ cup (2.3 oz / 65 g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (1.75 oz / 50 g) light brown sugar
- ½ cup + 2 T (3 oz / 85 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp cinnamon (.20 oz / 4 g)
- ½ cup (4 oz / 113 g) unsalted butter, cold
- ½ cup (2.25 oz / 64 g) walnuts, coarsely chopped
Pie Filling:
- ¾ cup (5.25 oz / 129 g) granulated sugar
- 2 tbl (.7 oz / 19 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 large egg
- 1 ¾ cup (15.2 oz / 430 g) sour cream
- 1 tsp (.10 oz / 2 g) cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp grated lemon rind
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- 4 cups thinly sliced baking apples, approximately 5 to 6 baking apples1
- ½ cup fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped
Tools and equipment needed:
- 9†pie pan2
- Dry and liquid measuring cups, tablespoon measuring set, scale
- Rolling pin
- Mixing bowls
- Aluminum foil, dry beans or baking weights
Pre-recipe preparations:
- Take P¢te Bris©e out of refrigerator 20 to 30 minutes prior to rolling out.
Directions
Streusel Topping:
- Combine the sugars, flour and cinnamon in a medium mixing bowl.
- Cut in the butter until crumbly, and only small pieces of butter are visible.
- Mix in the walnut pieces.
- Set in refrigerator.
Forming and pre-baking the pie shell:
- Roll out the dough on floured surface to a 13†to 14†circle.
- Drape it over the pie dish, pressing it into the edges.
- Form a crimped edge and trip off excess.
- Place in refrigerator to rest and chill for at least 1 hour prior to baking.3
- Preheat the oven to 375 °F.
- Remove pie shell from refrigerator for approximately 10 minutes. 4
- Spray a square of aluminum foil with non-stick spray and press into the pie shell. Fill with dry beans or pie weights.
- Bake for 25 minutes, remove pie pan from oven and place on heat-proof surface. Lift up the foil to look at the pastry. The sides should be set, and the bottom dough just turning from raw to cooked.
- Remove the foil and the beans, and return the pie pan to the oven for 5 to 10 minutes, just until the bottom pastry is no longer raw and turning white. The dough should not start to color at this point.
- Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature.
Filling, Assembly, and Baking:
- Pre-heat oven to 350 °F
- In large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, flour and egg. Whisk until smooth.
- Add sour cream, cinnamon, vanilla extract, lemon rind, salt and nutmeg, and whisk just until smooth.
- Peel, core, and slice the apples into ⅛†slices, enough to make 4 cups of apple slices.
- Place the apples and cranberries in the pie shell.
- Pour filing mixture into partially baked pie shell. Use back of a spoon to evenly distribute the fruit and custard in the shell
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Remove from oven and gently mix the custard by stirring in from the edges toward the center with a teaspoon. (This helps ensure an evenly cooked and creamy custard).
- Return to oven and bake for 10 minutes more, or until the custard is just beginning to set.
- Remove from oven, sprinkle the walnut streusel evenly over the top.
- Bake for an additional 12 to 16 minutes, or until the topping is browned, and the apples are tender (test with a sharp paring knife).
- Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack.
- Serve at room temperature.
- The pie may be kept in the refrigerator for 3 days. Let slices stand at room temperature for about 20 minutes for optimum taste. Leftovers may also be frozen
Variations:
Cranberry Sour Cream Pie: use 3 cups of picked over cranberries, place in the pre-baked pastry shell prior to pouring in the custard.
Baking notes:
1 Empire, Cortland, or Northern Spy work well in this recipe. Note: Do not prepare the apples until instructed in the recipe
2 The Pyrex pie pan I use measures 9†across the top
3 The rolled-out pie shell may be wrapped well in plastic film and stored in the refrigerator overnight, or frozen for up to 1 week. Take out of freezer the night before use and place in refrigerator. Do not place the pie shell directly from the freezer to the oven as the glass might shatter. 4 4 This reduces the thermal shock to the glass, from the refrigerator to the oven.
