Five Spice Apple Pie

It is fall, right? For us in Southern California, temperatures hit triple digits and other parts of the country had their first snow this past week! But there are apples in the markets, and apples = autumn to me. Last week’s trip to the potato fields of Idaho was a gorgeous reminder of what we miss here in the way of seasonal changes and, coming home to 100 degree temps due to Santa Ana winds that come off the desert every year around September/October, had me missing the kitchen aromas of apples pies and hearty stews and chili that seem in sync with the vibrant hues of the hillsides and brisk cool days.

I usually get homesick this time of year and am gleefully anticipating my annual trip to the Ozarks later this month to see family and indulge my senses with the sights, sounds, and smells of Fall. In the meantime, I dug up this recipe from the archives to share with you and fill my house with the lovely aroma of apples and cinnamon – or in this case Chinese 5-Spice for a little twist on good ole traditional apple pie like mom used to make.

View from our deck – see why I miss it?

This is from a series I called “Bon Appétit Challenge” that had me cooking the covers of some of my favorite decade-old issues.

The issue was the September 1999: Special Millennium Edition and on the cover was apple pie. Inwardly I groaned because I am not a baker – I can count on one hand the number of homemade pies that have seen my oven.

I could have shirked from the challenge because you all would never know, but I’m not like that. So I read through the recipe, check to make sure I have all the ingredients, buy Crisco (eek), apples at Plowboys, my current fave market, and – oh crap, I don’t own a pie pan – go to Target and buy a Pyrex glass pie dish.

Now, I never use Crisco, but I have heard that it does make the best pie crust… so putting aside the fact that it is made from partially hydrogenated oil; and everything we’ve learned about harmful trans fats (ignorance was bliss in 1999); I tackled the job of peeling all those apples.  This didn’t take as long as I thought it would – only about 10 minutes; coring and slicing them took a little longer.

I bet that you did not know that Crisco came out in 1911 and that early sales were largely  generated by Orthodox Jews.  The recipe for Five-Spice Apple Pie begins with this anecdote:

“By the time Crisco came out in 1911, apple pies had long been an American classic. But Crisco, the first hydrogenated vegetable shortening, gave cooks a boost.  Here was a shelf-stable alternative to perishable butter and lard. While a lot of consumers were skeptical of Crisco, many early sales were generated by Orthodox Jews,who bought the shortening after a recipe booklet was published in Yiddish showing how Crisco could be used without breaking kosher dietary laws. Crisco’s success was assured when rationing made lard scarce during World War I.”   Bon Appetit, September, 1999 

What I learned from this experience:

If I am going to bake more pies, I need to have a pastry blender so I don’t need to use two knives and a peeler with a more comfortable handle (see wish list); and homemade apple pie is the best, so much better than Mrs. Smiths!