An Apple Cider Cream Pie Recipe Worth Making Again And Again
In all my years of reading glossy food mags, I don't think I've ever made a magazine recipe twice. Then I met the apple cider cream pie.
Years ago I found it in a printed issue of Food & Wine, and was enticed by its promise of custardy jiggle and drifts of cinnamon whipped cream. The recipe is attributed to a Brooklyn based couple Allison Kave and her boyfriend Jay Horton, who entered a pie contest featuring local ingredients in 2009 and won with this pie. Kave even went on to open a pie shop. Who didn't back then?
The recipe is now on the Food & Wine website, I recommend you pick up the ingredients listed and make it immediately.
I made it for a friend's dinner party, and we could not get over how good it was. I raved to my mom, who insisted I come to her house to bake one shortly thereafter. We were so impatient to eat it that we dumped the whipped cream onto a still-warm pie and it turned into a melted ice rink of brown-flecked cream. Man, was it delicious.
As a holiday pie it's still seasonably acceptable, since apple cider is still available in most grocery stores. It's a nice break from the parade of brownies and cookies and mincemeat tarts and whatnot.
This one is fairly easy, as pies go. Know that this is not a finicky cold-set custard that needs egg tempering, but a baked custard that just requires a good whisking. The salty, flaky crust is made sturdy with cornstarch, and three stretches of baking time. You'll make foil collars to cover the edges of the crust to protect it from getting too dark.
Be patient and make it the proper way. Make sure your reduced apple cider is cool so you don't scramble your unsuspecting eggs, and let your finished pie cool completely before covering it with the whipped cream.
A few suggestions, though. I'd adjust the baking time down from what's listed at F&W. I'd still line the pie crust with parchment paper and pie weights/dried beans. Bake in the lower third of the oven for 12 minutes (instead of 15), until barely set. Then remove weights and parchment, cover the edges of the pie with foil strips, and bake again until lightly golden, this time for 12-15 minutes.
Additionally, I'd lower the sugar amount in the whipped cream from 1/4 cup to just a tablespoon—the pie is plenty sweet so I like a less-sweet whipped cream. Definitely don't skip the cinnamon.
Do yourself a favor and bookmark their recipe. I'll be making this again and again.