Crab Apple Pie

The crab apple cider is bubbling away and tastes great so far. This weekend we will taste again and measure its alcohol content with the hydrometer. Because we like this pink cider sweet and bubbly, we will likely siphon it into bottles then. Maybe we'll put a portion of it into a second ferment to see how it does as a dryer, more potent libation, more like our regular hard cider.

We've decided to take further advantage of the short crab apple season. Not quite two weeks after our first crab apple harvest, we went back to a couple of the trees, where the fruits were now even riper -- deep, dark pink, with a good number having dropped to the ground (patrolled by a good number of yellow jackets), but still plenty on the tree. We harvested a modest amount of these riper fruits for a couple of experiments.

Experiment #1: Sweet crab apple cider for blending with the planned Labor Day harvest of wild apples. We shredded a bunch of these very ripe crab apples and packed our small fruit press full. We froze three quarts of this fresh crab apple cider, with plans to thaw it and blend with the apple cider in a couple of weeks.

Experiment #2: Crab apple pie. Unlike my failed Valentine Lollipies, made with crab apple butter, this is an actual apple pie, made with chopped fresh crap apples, and I'll classify it as a success. That isn't to say there aren't things I'd do differently next time around, so I've noted those below in the recipe, which I got from here, although the same Maine grandmother's recipe can be found on other websites.

Crab Apple Pie

Double pie crust 

8 cups or so large pink crabapples to steam and quarter (Note: ultimately you want 6 cups chopped crab apples; I didn't measure how many I started with, so I'm guessing it was at least 8 cups, based on the yield of cores left over.)

1 cup white sugar

1 tablespoons flour (I say bump this up to 2 Tbsp)

1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 1/2 tablespoons butter, chopped into small pieces

1/ 4 (heaping) cup brown sugar

Milk and sugar for glazing

Prepare the bottom pie crust and affix in a 9-inch pie dish. Refrigerate until needed. Have the pastry dough for the top crust handy in the fridge as well.

Steam the crab apples by putting them in a metal colander over a large pot in which several inches of water are boiling. Cover the colander and steam the crab apples for 3 minutes. Drain and let cool enough to handle. 

Why? Steaming the crab apples parcooks and softens them just enough to make them easier to chop, because they are so small and hard. You will not be attempting to peel them. 1) The skins will lend a beautiful rosy color to your pie; 2) Crab apples' natural pectin is more concentrated in the skin, so it helps serve as a preservative and thickening agent; and 3) It's impossible to peel crab apples.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Prepare the steamed apples by cutting them into sort-of-quarters to remove the seeds, core and stem. See the photo -- you cut two sides off, like you're cutting the apple in half off-center on either side of the core (like cutting mango halves). Then you cut the two remaining shorter sides off. 

Your goal is 6 cups of crab apple chunks. Note: If you prefer a mushier apple pie filling, it would be worth sautéing these crab apple chunks at this point to cook them even further before assembling the pie. Put them into a large mixing bowl and mix with the white sugar, butter, flour and lemon juice.

Transfer to the prepared shell, mounding up the apples. Sprinkle the top with the light-brown sugar.

Affix the top crust, making a decorative edge and cut small slits in the dough to allow steam to escape. Brush the pastry lightly with milk and sprinkle the top with sugar.

Put the pie in the oven, with a baking sheet on the rack below it to catch overflowing juices (or else they hit the floor of the oven and caramelize-burn into a smoky, sugary crust that is very difficult to clean up. 

Bake for 15 minutes at 450 degrees. Then, lower the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 45 minutes, (rotating the pan halfway through) or until the juices inside are bubbling and the crust is a rich golden brown. If the crust starts to brown too much during baking, loosely cover it with foil. Note: Next time I'd try lowering the oven only to 375 and/or letting the pie go longer so the juices have more time to bubble and thicken up. Even though crab apple skins are naturally high in pectin, the filling was still very liquidy when I pulled the pie out.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

It's sweet and tart and brilliant pink. It's the rhubarb pie of apple pies.

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