The apple pie(History, origin, day, and tricks) to make you look yummy.
Flour, water, butter, and apples. ( Sounds like a Mary Poppins song! ) It’s just four ingredients, but doesn’t it make your mouth water? Yes, folks, I mean apple pie.
Whatever its preparation, because there are many ways to prepare it, I can’t help having that feeling.
Beyond confessing my weakness for this dessert, today I will try to tell you a little more about it. I’ll start at the beginning, its origin.
The origin of the apple pie
As with almost everything good about contemporary Western culture, we have been led to believe that apple pie, the well-known ” apple pie, ” is an American invention. They even use the expression “ as American as apple pie, ” which means as American as apple pie, to highlight their belonging! We have to recognize that it is a symbol of its gastronomy.
Nor can we deny the fame that the cinema has given to this cake. However, the origin of this dessert is diffuse and, given the circumstances, we must assume that it was born in Europe. This continent has a long tradition of apple cultivation.
On the other hand, the European pastry recipient has a large number of cakes and fruit fillings. There are 14th-century dessert books where recipes for apple pie or stuffed with other fruits, such as pear, were already collected.
Among the written documentation on this subject, it is worth mentioning the cookbook The Forme of Cury, published in 1390 by the cooks of Richard II of England. On its pages there is a recipe for apple pie; They call it “tartys in applis”.
We could say then that, in the absence of other references, the apple pie has its origin in England. In fact, there is evidence of its spread, in the fourteenth century, through the British colonies. These, with the French and Dutch, are believed to have brought her to the United States and other countries.
The Variants Of Apple Pies
We can think of apple pie as a fruit pie made with apple-coated dough. And it is. But, as I said at the beginning, there are varieties in which the dough surrounds all the fruit, as in the traditional Anglo-Saxon apple pie.
Other modalities, such as the French Tarte Tatin, are made upside-down, placing the dough on the fruit and then turning it over. Surely you have also tried those in which apples, whole or sliced, are placed on top of the dough and have creams.
These are of the Norman type. Others, such as the German apfelstrudel and its Austrian variant, have dried fruits, such as raisins and almonds, wrapped in a thin batter.
As a curious fact, in Venezuela apple pie is consumed for breakfast and snacks. Bakeries bake these individual cakes daily, which resemble apple strudel. They don’t have cinnamon or any other spices, just apples, sugar, and fat, and since the pasta has sugar in it, the top usually comes out of the oven an attractive caramel color.
Recommended ingredients for an apple pie
And if the preparation is varied, so are the ingredients. Because although the basics that we mentioned at the beginning are always present (flour, water, butter, and, of course, apples), we can incorporate other flavors with spices, nuts or jams, and jams; from cinnamon, lemon, or orange blossom water, nutmeg, and cloves, to eggs or creams… As we always say, cooking is imagination.
In most cases, these aromas are used to extinguish the sweetness of the sugar as much as possible. It should be noted that the first recipes did not include sugar since in the Middle Ages cane or beet sugar was a luxury that few had access to.
Instead, honey was used. Traditionally, apple pie was perfumed by adding lemon juice or rum.
The bases of a good apple pie. Mass
We can also play with different masses, using puff pastry, short pastry, or biscuits. The cake dough is made with wheat flour, butter, and sometimes eggs. It can be, as we say, a short pastry or puff pastry.
Once kneaded, it is placed in the oven at medium temperature until it takes consistency. Some closed masses of the cake make the apple cook inside, making the wrapping mass that retains the aromas. So that the dough is not too dry, you can sometimes add cream.
The apples. What is the best variety to make a cake?
And of course, the main ingredient, apples. Granny Smith, Golden, Great Maiden, there are about 7,500 kinds of apples; as many varieties of apples as you like. And that is an advantage. For example, the Canadian pippin, the queen of pippin, the boskoop beauty, or the white calvilla are perfect for cooking; They do not expel too much water and give a unique flavor to the cakes.
Another option is to mix different varieties: some of those mentioned for cooking and others more acidic such as pink lady, elstar, fuji, or Braeburn. The mixture will enhance the flavor of our cake.
Although it is also possible to make an apple pie with dried or packaged fruit, the idea is to use fresh apples. In general, we tend to opt for the varieties typical of our region.
International Apple Pie Day
The truth is that it is one of the most popular and international fruit tarts. So much so that there is even an International Apple Pie Day. March 3 is the day when the whole world celebrates this dessert, one of the oldest and consumed.
In the United States also celebrate May 13 as the National Day of the apple pie ( National Apple Pie Day ), that something is, like Apple Pie Council, the favorite dessert of Americans: One in five Americans prefer any other dessert, and 35% of the population takes it for breakfast.
They thus pay their particular and well-deserved tribute to this delicious delicacy that has become a national symbol.
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