"Grammy" & the Rum Raisin Apple Pie
by Marita Lopez-Mena

The recent hurricanes and the change of seasons got me thinking about my two grandmothers. They could not have been more dissimilar--one a poor Czech immigrant who worked in a knitting factory as a child, and the other a Spanish lady of means who decked herself out in a mantilla and big, fat diamond earrings. That woman never picked up a wooden spoon unless it was to whack a wayward servant. Although I see Grandmother Eustasia, long dead, as a distant and surreal influence, she had her good points: she was, for example, one of the founders of La Cruz Roja (the Red Cross) in the Philippine Islands, the fine organization that has given so much comfort to the hurricane victims this year. Nevertheless I always thought of my Czech "grammy" as my "real" grandmother because she was alive and cooking. In fact her apple pie recipe lives on every autumn and winter.

The pie of which I speak of is an evolving work of art . . . my mother added her touches and I have added mine. I get "fancy" by adding lime to the lemon juice, a jigger of rum, golden raisins, and sometimes chopped walnuts. I serve my warm "rum raisin apple pie" with Haagen Dazs rum raisin ice cream on the side when a dollop of decadence is required by the ghost of my Spanish grandmother.

I pass on the recipe here with certain caveats. I learned to make it by watching my grandmother fashion her pies over the years, and it is difficult to translate the amounts of ingredients, as she did not measure things in the usual ways. Also, my grandmother made her crust with lard, not a common ingredient these days, but worth a try.

The only thing that cannot be approximated in my kitchen is the wonderful coal and wood cast iron stove that my grandmother tended. She would sling the large round plates on the surface aside with a special handle, tossing chunks of wood into the holes where the fire glowed. I may not have the stove, but I do have her magic rolling pin and wood pastry board (although the marble variety makes the peeling-off process that much easier). And I go to the store or farmstand for the apples instead of fetching them from the large wooden barrel where they were stored in layers of thick newspaper in Grammy's dark, cool cellar. She used to let me help pick them out, carefully plopping them into her outstretched apron for carrying back up the narrow stairway.

Grammy's apple pie always came out exactly the same--perfect. The apples were soft and yet not mushy, it was neither too sweet nor too tart, the juices had turned into a honey colored syrup bathing the apple slices, and the crust was flaky and nutlike. Mine, in this day of diets and obsessive cholesterol worries, is not made regularly. And sometimes it is not as perfect as I imagine it will be. Still there is always joy in watching my own aging hands fly around the rim of the pie plate as I pinch the crust into a ropelike edging, and hearing my grandchildren praise it by wolfing down a big slice and asking for more.

The Recipe For Rum Raisin Pie

Crust:
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 stick plus 2 tbsp salted butter
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 egg white, beaten until frothy

Sift the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and then remove 1/3 cup of it to a small bowl. To this add 1/4 cup water and mix together rapidly with a fork until it has the consistency of heavy pancake batter. Add a little extra water if need be. Work the butter into the remaining flour mixture, rubbing it in with your palms and between your fingers until it is thoroughly mixed to the consistency of bits of rice. Add to this the flour/water paste, and with sweeps of your hand integrate the ingredients until a ball of dough that holds together can be formed. It is important not to overhandle the dough or it will be tough. Divide the ball in two--the one for the bottom crust just slightly larger than the other. Put the dough into the refrigerator for an hour to chill.

Roll out the bottom crust on a lightly floured board or marble slab until you have a thin round circle that will fit into a 9-inch pie tin (I prefer glass so that I can check to see if the bottom of the crust is golden brown when baked). Fold the crust in two for easier handling then transfer to pie plate and unfold.

Filling:
6 to 7 large firm apples like McIntosh (you can mix varieties for fun, even adding a tart Granny Smith)
1 cup brown sugar with two heaping tbsp of corn starch and 1 tsp of cinnamon mixed in
1/2 lemon (lime is also nice)
1/2 cup golden raisins
slivers of salted butter
1/3 cup rum (Goslings is good)
1/3 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, optional

Wash and peel the apples, cut in half and slice down to the core, thinly for a more delicate filling (or in thicker slices for a heartier pie to serve with cheddar cheese). Slice half the apples directly into the pie shell. Add half the sugar mixture, half the raisins (and walnuts if used), squeeze some of the lemon (or lime) juice over, and dot the layer with butter slivers.

Repeat the same process, lightly pour the rum over the top and then cover with the rolled out top crust. Make a fluted edge all around by placing the thumb and index finger of one hand facing outward to the edge of the pie plate rim, and then using the thumb of the other hand make an indentation in the space between. Trim the crust with a sharp knife around the edge and brush the top with one beaten egg white. Using a fork or knife, make vents in the top of the crust.

Place in a pre-heated oven at either 350° or 375° depending on how hot your oven runs. Bake for 40-45 minutes until the top and bottom are golden brown, and you may see thickened juice coming through the crust vents.