3 large firm Bosc pears, peeled, cored sliced
3 large tart apples, peeled, cored, sliced
2 T. fresh lemon juice
½ c. brown sugar, firmly packed
3 T. flour
½ t. cinnamon
¼ t. salt
2 T. sweet sherry
2 T. lowfat margarine
1 T. nonfat evaporated milk
1 T. granulated sugar
Pastry
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line 9” pan with pastry and set aside. Ina large bowl, combine the pears and apples. Add the lemon juice and toss to coat. In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar, flour cinnamon and salt. Add the fruit and toss to combine. Add the sherry and toss until completely mixed. Pile the fruit into the pie pan and dot with bits of the butter. Cover with the top crust and crimp together the crust edges. Cut slits in top crust to allow steam to escape and brush the top crust with the cream and sprinkle with the sugar. Bake for 30 minutes and then reduce heat to 350 and continue baking until the crust is browned and the fruit is tender when pierced with a knife inserted through a vent, about 35 minutes longer.
Another vote for Cortland, and I’ve made apple pie with a number of apples, including Granny Smith. Red Delicious hardly deserve the designation of “food” at this point, they’re so unbearably… nothing.
Cortlands for apple crisp and pies; Granny Smith for baked apples. My Mom, who makes a great apple pie, likes 20 ounce apples, too, when she can find them. Honeycrisp and Macouns for eating. Red delicious is good for small children, who like the sweetness and don’t care about the lack of flavor. I’ve never had a Bramley, oh overseas brethern, please tell more.
One characteristic of the Bramley is its size. There are usually twice as large as say a Granny Smith. This makes them ideal for baked apples. The way we cook them is to take out the core and then fill with a mixture of raisins and sultanas, place in a shallow Pyrex dish and bake in the oven until the apple is soft. An even better variation is to substitute the dried fruit with (Christmas) mince-meat.
I just made a pie over the weekend for my in-laws using Ida Red apples from a nearby fruit farm. These apples bake firm and have a very tart taste. Excellent with vanilla ice cream. Everyone raved about it.
The number of varieties available in UK supermarkets is going up again after a period when it seemed you could only buy French Golden Delicious and South African Granny Smiths :dubious: I did a check in my local Waitrose today and there were 14 varieties ( ! ) on sale. Of course - it is the apple season at the moment.
The varieties on sale were:
Bramleys (English)
Cox’s Orange Pippins (English)
Kidd’s Orange (English)
Egremont Russet (English)
Spartan (English)
Falstaff (English)
Royal Gala (English)
Estivale (English)
Regal Prince (English)
Granny Smith (South African)
Braeburn (French)
Golden Delicious (French)
Jazz (New Zealand)
Pink Lady (Australian)
Johnathans are the best. I know this because that is what my mom always used, and she made the best apple pie.
OK…maybe it wasn’t the apples, but Mom that made it so good. Still, I’m a bit suprised that nobody mentioned Johnathans yet. Maybe they are a Colorado thing? We always bought apples by the bushel when visiting my grandparents in Grand Junction, CO. I think EVERY orchard around there offered Johnathans among other choices. They were the default “doesn’t turn to mush” cooking and baking apple.
(Or Golden Delicious.)