pie

15 September 2008

~ brixton ~ Leave a comment

I grew up in a very heavily Swedish town in Northern Illinois.  I guess it’s more of a city, really.  And I guess it’s probably only the side of town where I grew up – the northeast, but generally the side east of the river – that is or was heavily Swedish.  I could be wrong about that, though.

Anyway.

I grew up in a heavily Swedish church in a heavily Swedish town, and the thing to do on Sundays after church was to go to Stockholm Inn for Swedish pancakes and lingonberries.  It didn’t seem odd to have several Andersons, Ericksons (or Ericsons), Gustafsons, Johnsons, Olsons, or Petersons in any of my classes.  I never thought anything of this until I moved away to places that were not overwhelmingly Swedish or – like where we are now – weren’t Swedish in the least bit.

None of this is the point of this post, however.  For work today, I made my Swedish Apple pie from the Kitchen Table Cookbook.  I’m not in the least bit Swedish, and I have no idea why the pie is Swedish, but it’s delicious, and tangentially related to another food that I have sentimental memories of, and there you have it.

Thanksgiving recipe #2 – Swedish Apple Pie

~ brixton ~ Leave a comment

Swedish Apple Pie

Streusel:
1 C flour
1/4 lb butter (1 stick)
1/2 C sugar
2 t ground cinnamon

Cut butter into cubes. Combine all ingredients with a pastry blender or food processor until crumbly. Set aside.

Pie fixins:
4 C sliced apples
2 heaping T flour
1 C sour cream
1 egg, beaten
1/2 t vanilla
pinch salt
3/4 C sugar
1 premade or from scratch pie crust

Preheat oven to 400F. Place pie crust in pie pan and pierce a few times with a fork. I like to prebake the crust for a few minutes until it’s set, but that’s totally a personal preference. If you’re all fancy, you can use pie weights. I find that prebaking is helpful as the crust is less likely to fall.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sour cream, egg, vanilla, salt, and sugar until smooth, then stir in apples until coated. Pour into prepared pie crust and top with streusel. Bake 15 minutes at 400F, then reduce the heat to 350F and bake 40 more minutes.

I know that sour cream in apple pie sounds weird, and that the cinnamony goodness you’re used to is notably absent, but please, just trust me on this one.