Easy as Pie: Apple Custard

I have apples on the brain lately.

All I think about at night are apple cakes, apple pies and apple desserts.
What the hell is wrong with me?
No wonder I can't sleep.

October is apple season here in the Northeast, and my friend Martha lives on a commercial fruit orchard in Germantown, NY.
As you know I get delicious baskets of peaches, pears, and those wondrous cherries during the season left on my porch.

Well, my apples arrived the other day, straight from the beautiful Hudson Valley, in New York State.

The variety was new to me, an apple called Liberty, as well as the usual crisp Empires.

I decided on a pie. (Tomorrow, I can bake that Polish apple walnut cake that I have bookmarked......).

This is not a traditional pie, but boy, was this easy to make and GOOD!

It is an apple custard pie. Yes, I said custard. The creamy custard made the pie very special, and I promise it was so simple. The hardest part was making the pastry.

I won't tell anyone if you use an all ready made pie crust, though it's so much better when you make your own.

I used only half the sugar the recipe called for, because I felt 1 cup of sugar was too much for a pie. It was sweet enough.
If you are using tart Granny Smith apples, then you may want to increase the amount of sugar to 3/4 cup.



Apple Custard Pie (I don't have a clue where this recipe came from!)

1 deep dish 9" pie crust, rolled out and fitted into a glass pie dish

4 apples, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 tsp of salt

1 cup of heavy cream (I used half & half)
2 eggs
1 tsp of vanilla

2 tbsp butter, sliced and cut into small dice



In a 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup, pour in the cream, eggs and vanilla and whisk with a fork, set aside.

In a bowl, mix sugar, cinnamon and salt, set aside.

Preheat oven to 450F. Yes, I said 450F. I will explain later.

Lay half of your apples on the bottom of the prepared pie shell and sprinkle with half the cinnamon sugar mixture.
Pour half the cream mixture over this.



Now place another layer of apples on top of this and add the rest of the cinnamon sugar and pour in the rest of the cream, carefully.

Dot the top of the pie with the butter pieces and bake at 450 for only 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, turn your oven down to 350F and bake for another 40 minutes, until top is golden and bubbly.

I had to cover the edges with aluminum foil because it was getting too brown, which often happens with buttery pie crust.



This was so damn delicious!
No a la mode needed!