When the pie is baked, and while it is still hot, lift off carefully the top crust; add sugar, nutmeg, and a little butter, and mix them well with the apples. Replace the top crust, and dust it with powdered sugar. Apple pies seasoned in this way are better than when seasoned before being baked.
PUMPKIN PIE
Cut a pumpkin into small pieces; remove the soft part and seeds. Cover and cook it slowly in its own steam until tender; then remove the cover and reduce it almost to dryness, using care that it does not burn. Press it through a colander. To two and one half cupfuls of pulp add two cupfuls of milk, one teaspoonful each of salt, butter, cinnamon, and ginger, one tablespoonful of molasses, two eggs, and sugar to taste. Add the beaten eggs last and after the mixture is cold. Pour it into an open crust and bake slowly forty to fifty minutes. Squash pies are made in the same way, but are not the same in flavor, although they are often given the name of pumpkin pies.
MINCE PIE MIXTURE
- 3 pounds of lean boiled beef chopped fine, or half beef and half boiled tongue.
- 1½ pounds of suet chopped fine.
- 3 quarts of apples chopped not very fine.
- 1 quart of stoned raisins.
- 2 cupfuls of cleaned currants.
- ¼ pound of citron cut into thin slices.
- 1 cupful of candied orange and lemon peel shredded.
- 1 teaspoonful each of cloves, allspice and cinnamon.
- Grated zest and juice of two oranges and two lemons.
- 2 nutmegs grated.
- 1 tablespoonful of salt.
- 1 cupful of molasses.
- 3 cupfuls or sugar.
- 3 cupfuls of brandy.
- 1 cupful of sherry.
- 1 cupful of cider.
Mix the meat and suet together; then add all the dry ingredients and then the liquids. Pack in an earthen jar. It should stand several days before using, and will keep an indefinite time.
The pies should be made of good puff paste for the upper crust and tart paste for the under one, the edge having three layers as directed on page [451]. The filling of mince meat should be one and a half inches thick. Paint the top crust with egg and trace with a pointed knife some simple design on it, cutting the paste very slightly. Bake for one hour and a quarter. Glaze the top by sifting a very little powdered sugar over it a few minutes before removing it from the oven.
CREAM PIE
- 3 eggs.
- 1 cupful of sugar.
- 1 teaspoonful of baking-powder.
- 1 cupful of flour.
Sift the flour and baking-powder together; beat the yolks and sugar together; add the flour and lastly the whipped whites of the eggs. Bake this cake mixture in two layers, and place between them when cold, and just before serving, a thick layer of whipped cream. Have the top piece covered with a boiled icing, or use between the cakes a cream filling made as follows: