Sour Cream Apple Pie

 

Here is another apple pie recipe that is a personal favorite. This one comes from Manhattan's Dessert Scene by Rose Reisman, where it is listed as a specialty of the famous Manhattan bakery Gindi. This apple pie might look like my previous post, but in fact, the two are quite different in both taste and texture. Swiss Apple pie has a lot of ground almonds in the moussy batter covering the sauteed apples, the flavor is definitely lemon and the texture is creamy. Sour Apple Pie, on the other hand, is almost all apples encased by a crunchy crust and a streusel topping. The common point is that they are both as far from the all-American apple pie as one can get. I changed a few things in the recipe, and I am going to write it as I made it.

Crust:

1 1/2 c vanilla wafers, finely ground
5 tbs melted butter

Filling:

3/4 c sugar
2 tbs flour
1 c sour cream
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon
5 large apples, peeled, cored and sliced thinly

Topping:

3 oz chopped walnuts
1/2 c packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 oz butter, cut into tiny pieces
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour (I used a combination of all-purpose and white spelt flour since I did not have enough all-purpose flour at home.)


Preheat oven to 350F. Combine the crust ingredients well and press into a 9-inch springform pan.

Mix all the filling ingredients except the apples in a large bowl until well combined. Add the sliced apples and mix well. Pour into the crust and bake 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the topping. Place all the topping ingredients in the food processor bowl and process just until crumbly. (Of course, if your food processor is small like mine, you can do this the old-fashioned way. Mix sugar, flour, cinnamon and vanilla in a bowl, cut in the butter using a pastry blender until crumbly and add the chopped walnuts.) Sprinkle the topping on the partially baked filling and bake for another 15-20 minutes.