Originally published on Medium
In our imperfect world, where our humanity is not enough to exempt all of us from harsh penal policies, the justice system in some states offers the unpardonable a parting shot: the last meal.
Steak. Wine. Pizza. More steak but smothered with gravy. A triple meat bacon cheeseburger. Baked potatoes. A bucket of KFC. Waffles. French fries with extra salt.
For dessert, at least in the US, the loudest clamor came for the beloved apple pie. No surprise there. What is “as American as apple pie,” the stuff of dreams for many a young soldier conscripted to fight in World War II, whose stock answer when asked by journalists why they were going to war was “for Mom and apple pie”? Even in the early years of the Cold War, the apple pie figured in a song called The Fiery Bear, as a symbol of American culture vis-a-vis the Russian Bear, which is the symbol of the Soviet Union:
We love our baseball and apple pie
We love our county fair
We’ll keep Old Glory waving high
There’s no place here for a bear
This got me thinking: of all the yummy cakes and all the luscious pies in the world to send me off into the void, is the apple pie my own end-of-days dessert of choice?
The answer is a resounding yes.
TRUE ORIGINS
Though it has safely secured its place as an emblem of American culture, the apple pie did not originate in the US. It came from England, whose early settlers in the colonies brought with them recipes that date back to medieval times. Apples are also not native to North America. They originated in Kazakhstan. It spread throughout Europe through the Romans, who cultivated apples and carried apple seeds and trees to the British Isles.
A pivotal moment in the history of American cuisine came in 1796 when the first known American apple pie recipe was published in American Cookery by Amelia Simmons:
Apple Pie.
Stew and strain the apples, to every three pints, grate the peal of a fresh lemon, add cinnamon, mace, rose-water and sugar to your taste — and bake in paste №3.
Every species of fruit such as peas, plums, rasberries, black berries may be only sweetened, without spices — and bake in paste №3.
Since then, the popularity of America’s version of the apple pie has grown, with Americans throughout the years making this dish their own.
GOING DUTCH
There are many versions of apple pie to choose from: Dutch, Swedish, the French tarte tatin, a lattice pastry topped pie, a double crust pie and a mock apple pie. But let me pan the camera towards the Dutch version, which tops the apple filling with a sweet butter crumble — how we make sourdough apple pies here at Rise Artisanal.
The Dutch apple pie’s origins are medieval. A recipe for Appeltaerten was documented in a Dutch cookbook published in 1514, and called for nothing more than a pie crust, slices of apples (skin and seeds removed), and more of the same dough on top. It recommends adding spices such as cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, mace and powdered sugar, but over the years, the number of spices required to make a decent pie has been reduced to just two: cinnamon and nutmeg.
Traditional Dutch apple pie includes the lattice top variety, aside from the crumb style. In the US, however, going Dutch, as far as apples are concerned, refers to the pie version with a streusel on top.
Our micro-bakery is not in the business of pie-making, but making pie is consistent with our ethos of not wasting anything. As a sourdough bakery, we accumulate what is called sourdough discard — a portion of the starter or levain that must be replaced with fresh flour regularly. It is part of the natural upkeep for sourdough — making sure that the starter is healthy, as that gives each unique sourdough loaf its health benefits and complex flavors.
The sourdough discard still has those live microorganisms that our gut bacteria feeds on called prebiotics. Rather than throw it out, we use it to make the crust for our apple pie. We do that by combining a generous amount of the sourdough discard with some fresh flour and the usual pie crust suspects: butter, vinegar, salt and sugar. What we have found is that the discard not only provides the structure that holds the pie. It also adds a tangy and rather cheesy aftertaste when delighting in the apple pie trifecta the right way: savoring the crust, the apples, and the crumble in one bite. That combination, plus the prebiotics, can't be bad.
LOVED ALL OVER
While writing this piece, I found the excuse to bake myself Rise Artisanal's very own Dutch Apple Pie on Sourdough Crust.
It is not hard to see why this dessert crossed continental boundaries, why recipes from the Middle Ages are still well-preserved, why it is as American as Uncle Sam, and why 13,000 kilometers away, in Manila, Philippines, our sourdough bakery has somewhat turned baking apple pies into a sport. Those thinly sliced apples marinating in a cinnamon glaze that lie on a bed of buttery sourdough crust that tastes more like cheese and then cloaked with a rich streusel — it offers me, and hopefully my customers too, a very good reason to be alive. All of us face many obstacles, but we too can overcome. And on the days that are easier, the demand for our homemade apple pie and a reason to smile has been overwhelming.
As I write this in sheer delight over a just-finished slice of still warm freshly baked apple pie, which I paired for the first time with some cheddar cheese (because apparently in some parts of the world that is typically done and I only discovered the practice during my research for this), I invite you to live more than vicariously too. In just a matter of minutes, my troubles were dissolved by good comfort food. Make the enjoyment of good traditional homemade dessert a visceral one by ordering our apple pie today.