Dutch Apple Pie

Submitted by Countrywife

"This is from the first Apple Hill Cookbook attributed to Alice Naslen. Alice, I've made many, many pies by request and shared your recipe with many people. I humbly thank you. I always keep an extra bottle of bitters now. When I open one, I buy another. Once when I ran out of bitters, the store didn't have any! Thanksgiving was not the same!"

 

• Ready In: 1hr 10mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Serves: 8

ingredients

• 2 cups apples, sliced and peeled

• Crust

• 2 cups flour
• 1⁄2 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 cup rolled oats (quick or regular)
• 3⁄4 cup melted butter or 3/4 cup margarine

• Custard

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 5 dashes bitters

directions

1. Combine crust mixture.
2. Reserve 1 cup and press the rest in a pie tin.
3. Put apples in crust.
4. In a small pan mix water, sugar, salt, and cornstarch. Cook while stirring until mixture gets thick.
5. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and bitters.
6. Pour hot custard over apples.
7. Sprinkle reserved cup of crumbs over pie.
8. Bake at 350°F for 50 to 60 minutes until crust is crunchy.

Reviews

[Harmonyhill]

I wanted to love this pie because it's different. The bitters add a great flavor and I found the custard/syrup to be really good. The finished product, however, was too sweet for my taste, and I wanted more apples than crust. I love the filling, so I'm wondering if it would be good in traditional pie crust. Thank you for a different kind of apple pie recipe.

 

[Karen Elizabeth]

A great pie, easy to make. the only place where I wavered was the Bitters...I thought, that when I 'dashed', only a few drops would come out each time, instead, it seemed to Splurge out....so in the end, i put in three generous dashes! I was making it to take to a friends'.....it looked fantastic, and two people had seconds, but unfortunately neither my husband nor I had any! But it was well-received by others! One thing, 'custard' is a bit mis-leading, I would call it a syrup, rather.

 

[Muffin Goddess]

This was a great pie! I pulled one of these out of the oven at midnight last night (it was "domestication day" -- do laundry and bake my little heart out), and at 10am this morning, there's only one small sliver left. As you might have guessed, we have a house full of night owls. Since I'm piecrust challenged, I loved the mix-and-press crumb crust. I was a little worried about the custard part because the instructions seemed a bit vague at first, but once I started cooking it I was fine. I used almost three cups of apples because I had about 30 lbs of u-pick Cortlands and Macouns to use up (all my baked goods are apple and overstuffed right now! LOL). This will be a definite rerun in my house -- Thanks for posting!