Slice of Pie

I owe my love of food to my mother and my family. My earliest and fondest memories have always begun in the kitchen and ended at the table, and like many Haitian families, the sharing of food became one of our most important methods of bonding. It didn’t matter how distant the connections were; whether I was bringing

A Slice of Pie: Tart a L’Onion

Words By: Emanuel Louime Photos By: Ngan Tran

leftover donuts from my high school job to share with friends, or waking up late on Christmas day to cook a quiche with my mom, food has always made the moments I spend with others feel just a little more special. Every time I make this tart, the entire experience, from the smell of caramelized onions to the crackle of the crust, makes me recall fond memories with my family. I might be reminded of crying with my sister while slicing onions or tiptoeing around the kitchen to be extra careful with “grandma’s special pie dish.” In sharing this recipe, I hope you’re able to make bonds and memories with the people important to you as well.

Ingredients:

Crust

1 ¼ cups all purpose flour ¼ teaspoon salt ½ cup unsalted butter, frozen, cut into ½-inch pieces 4 tablespoons ice water

Filling

¼ cup butter 5 white onions, sliced thinly 1 tablespoon all purpose flour 4 eggs beaten lightly nutmeg ½ cup heavy cream ½ cup milk ¼ cup gruyere cheese (optional)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 375 °F. To make your crust, combine your flour, salt, and butter in a large bowl. Cut the butter into the flour mixture using a fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add your ice water and knead until the dough forms a shaggy consistency, place into an airtight container, and refrigerate until you are ready to use it.

To make your filling, combine your butter, white onions, and salt in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Cook until the onions are softened, translucent, and just beginning to brown. Add your flour, stir to combine, and let the mixture cook briefly, about 30 seconds, before adding your milk and heavy cream one at a time, fully incorporating between. Let the mixture cook until slightly thickened; add a pinch of nutmeg. Incorporate your four beaten eggs once the mixture is fully cooled, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Roll out your pie dough and drape it into your 9-inch pan. Par-bake for 10 minutes. Add your filling and gruyere cheese. Bake for approximately 30 minutes at 375°F, or until the custard has set and the crust is browned. Let cool for at least 5 minutes or serve cold. Garnish with parsley, chives, or green onions you’d like, and enjoy!

A Slice of Pie: Apple Pie

Words By: Lilly Mathieu Photos By: Ngan Tran

The image of apple pie arrives synchronously with thoughts of tradition, seemingly fit for an American postage stamp. But for years, I’ve neglected to understand where the idea of apple pie diverges from its stereotypical trademark and becomes the authentic, meaningful element of my family that I’ve discovered today.

As my mother retells, my great-grandmother never failed to make an apple pie on Sunday, or on any other occasion with guests. At the impending arrival of a visitor, there would be an apple pie in the oven. Whether she only had four apples to spare or an abundant ten, there was no excuse, only an infinite scheme of modifications. One of her most recognizable adjustments was the “Crisco” vegetable shortening, as World War II led to the rationing of butter. And her constant choice of Granny Smith apples—with their often unliked tartness delivering affordability—made her recipe beautifully unique and tailored to the fabric of her life.

I found something so remarkable about the fluidity of her recipe. She managed to shape a pie around the circumference of life’s unexpected hand to dependably welcome every mouth that stumbled upon her kitchen. While for years I’ve eaten a slice of her apple pie, recreated by my mother, my grandmother, and even myself at Thanksgiving, I never imagined how it threads a generational story together. So, in her memory, I present Helen Margaret Jennings Trainor’s (1898-1990) famous apple pie.

Ingredients: Instructions:

Crust

2 cups all-purpose flour ½ teaspoon salt ⅔ cup shortening ⅓ cup ice water ¼ cup whole milk

Filling

¾ -1 cup sugar 1-2 tablespoons flour ¾ teaspoon cinnamon ½ teaspoon nutmeg 6 cups of Granny Smith apples 2 tablespoons butter 1 tablespoon lemon juice To prepare the crust, mix the flour, salt, and shortening until combined with a crumbled texture. Then, slowly add the ice-cold water, using a fork to blend. Once combined, split it into two sections. Flouring your surface, so the dough will not stick, roll out one of the sections of your dough to prepare the crust for the bottom of the pie plate. Grease the bottom of a glass pie plate generously with unsalted butter and dust with flour. Then move the rolled-out bottom layer of dough to the plate, pressing it softly to fit its frame.

Preheat the oven to 425 °F and begin to prepare the filling. Mix the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg until blended and set aside. Peel, slice, and cut the apples into chunky 1-inch pieces.

Returning to the pie plate, add half of the sugar mixture to the plate and pile in half of the apple slices, tossing them to coat them in the sugar mixture. Then add in the remaining apple slices and the rest of the sugar mixture. Once the apples are evenly coated in the sugar mixture, scatter thin, square pats of butter over the top of the filling, and coat with lemon juice.

Roll out the remaining section of dough to prepare the top layer of crust. Use the diameter of the pie plate to approximate the necessary size of the crust, but remember to account for its need to go over the filling as well. Placing the crust on top of the pie plate, use the tines of a fork to seal and crimp the edges of the dough on the plate. With a knife, place thin ½ inch slits in the top layer of crust to allow for the release of heat when baking. Brush the top crust with whole milk to create a crisp, matte, and classic pie appearance.

If you wish to experiment with more complex pie designs, a lattice crust, which resembles the pattern of a weaved basket, is simple in practice, yet promises to impress. To recreate this top crust, roll out your dough to the same circle shape, and slice 12 1-inch strips. Lay 6 of your strips of dough vertically across the top of the filling, placing them in order according to their length, with the longer pieces at the center and the shorter strips towards the sides. Then, in the same length-ordering fashion, weave the remaining six strips in between and perpendicular to the ones previously placed. To do this, fold everyother strip back when placing down the piece of the next layer, then returning them to their place, to reveal a weaved pattern with the new strip. For each successive placement, fold back the three strips you did not previously use, and continue this method until the lattice pie crust is complete. When finished, trim the edges of the dough strips if they hang off of the plate, and crimp the edges to the bottom layer of crust.

Place on the lower shelf of the oven for 50-60 minutes, and proceed to insert a knife into the slits in the pie crust to test if the apples are soft and tender. Enjoy!

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