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The Marlborough Man
This week's Resolution Recipe: Marlborough Pudding. (Pie.)
"Marlborough Pudding originated in England as a custard pie and crossed the Atlantic with early English settlers. It has since embraced its Americanness as another take on the beloved national dessert: apple pie."
1 pie crust
6 T butter
3/4 cup stewed, puréed apples (Typically requires around 4 apples.) (I usually try to get an heirloom cooking breed, but Stan the costermonger wasn't at the farmers' market - so I got Granny Smiths from another apple farm. It was those or Fujis, and Grannys are better for cooking.)
(dash cinnamon)
juice of 1 lemon
3/4 cup sherry
1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup white sugar
3 eggses
2 tsp nutmeg (Ha! I used... actually that amount.)
Use whatever pastry recipe you'd like to create the single deep-dish crust. (I used: 1 cup flour, ~4 T each butter and lard)
Melt the butter and leave to cool. Prepare the stewed apples: peel and dice, transfer them to a pot, and add just enough water to cover them. Add a dash of ground cinnamon and simmer until soft, about 30 minutes. Strain and mash the apples when they're done.
Squeeze the lemon, remove any seeds, and add the juice to 3/4 cup of the stewed apples. Add the sherry, cream, and sugar; mix until well incorporated. (Some 19th c. recipes add rose water or orange-flower water, instead of sherry.) Next, add the melted butter, blending well. Finally, beat and fold in the eggses.
Heat the oven to 400°. Foll out the pie crust into a deep (1 1/2-2") pie plate. Blind bake (I baked for 10 minutes with parchment, then 5 uncovered). Add the nutmeg to the custard and spoon everything into the pastry-lined pie plate. Bake for 15 minutes at 400°, then 45 minutes at 350° until a tester comes out clean. Cool before serving.
What worked: The blind bake meant there was no soggy bottom. I might have used a bit more than 3/4 cup apples (I didn't measure) but it meant there was a nice apple-y flavor; the comment from the upstairs neighbors was "warm mulled cider" from the nutmeg and dash of cinnamon. It fully filled our deep-dish pie tin. The sherry was apparent but did not have an alcohol heat to it.
What didn't: I made the pie after rehearsal, which did not give it enough time to cool. Because it was still warm, the texture was a bit jiggly/soft, not fully set, even though it was definitely fully baked and not runny or scrambled. Clearly I need to make this in the morning, or the night before if I have time obligations the day of. It was set the next day for tea.
I mixed in the nutmeg, which reading more carefully as I enter it, I think might be intended to all be sprinkled on the top to provide a visual emphasis. I kind of liked the flavor throughout the custard though.
The half we didn't eat started weeping a bit of apple juice into the empty side of the pan as it cooled to room temperature, sogging up the bottom crust. This might not be an issue if we had fully cooled it before slicing. I might need to drain the apples in a sieve or colander rather than using the pasta drainer to remove the water; I don't want to mash the apples in the sieve and drain out apple juice though.
Will I make it again? Definitely. While this might be nice with whipped cream or crème fraiche, it didn't need it. If I wanted to really tart it up (ha!) I could also see decorating the top with fanned thinly sliced apples after reducing the heat to 350, like a tarte aux pommes.
This was apparently a 19th c. Thanksgiving favorite, and having made it I can see why.
"Marlborough Pudding originated in England as a custard pie and crossed the Atlantic with early English settlers. It has since embraced its Americanness as another take on the beloved national dessert: apple pie."
1 pie crust
6 T butter
3/4 cup stewed, puréed apples (Typically requires around 4 apples.) (I usually try to get an heirloom cooking breed, but Stan the costermonger wasn't at the farmers' market - so I got Granny Smiths from another apple farm. It was those or Fujis, and Grannys are better for cooking.)
(dash cinnamon)
juice of 1 lemon
3/4 cup sherry
1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup white sugar
3 eggses
2 tsp nutmeg (Ha! I used... actually that amount.)
Use whatever pastry recipe you'd like to create the single deep-dish crust. (I used: 1 cup flour, ~4 T each butter and lard)
Melt the butter and leave to cool. Prepare the stewed apples: peel and dice, transfer them to a pot, and add just enough water to cover them. Add a dash of ground cinnamon and simmer until soft, about 30 minutes. Strain and mash the apples when they're done.
Squeeze the lemon, remove any seeds, and add the juice to 3/4 cup of the stewed apples. Add the sherry, cream, and sugar; mix until well incorporated. (Some 19th c. recipes add rose water or orange-flower water, instead of sherry.) Next, add the melted butter, blending well. Finally, beat and fold in the eggses.
Heat the oven to 400°. Foll out the pie crust into a deep (1 1/2-2") pie plate. Blind bake (I baked for 10 minutes with parchment, then 5 uncovered). Add the nutmeg to the custard and spoon everything into the pastry-lined pie plate. Bake for 15 minutes at 400°, then 45 minutes at 350° until a tester comes out clean. Cool before serving.
What worked: The blind bake meant there was no soggy bottom. I might have used a bit more than 3/4 cup apples (I didn't measure) but it meant there was a nice apple-y flavor; the comment from the upstairs neighbors was "warm mulled cider" from the nutmeg and dash of cinnamon. It fully filled our deep-dish pie tin. The sherry was apparent but did not have an alcohol heat to it.
What didn't: I made the pie after rehearsal, which did not give it enough time to cool. Because it was still warm, the texture was a bit jiggly/soft, not fully set, even though it was definitely fully baked and not runny or scrambled. Clearly I need to make this in the morning, or the night before if I have time obligations the day of. It was set the next day for tea.
I mixed in the nutmeg, which reading more carefully as I enter it, I think might be intended to all be sprinkled on the top to provide a visual emphasis. I kind of liked the flavor throughout the custard though.
The half we didn't eat started weeping a bit of apple juice into the empty side of the pan as it cooled to room temperature, sogging up the bottom crust. This might not be an issue if we had fully cooled it before slicing. I might need to drain the apples in a sieve or colander rather than using the pasta drainer to remove the water; I don't want to mash the apples in the sieve and drain out apple juice though.
Will I make it again? Definitely. While this might be nice with whipped cream or crème fraiche, it didn't need it. If I wanted to really tart it up (ha!) I could also see decorating the top with fanned thinly sliced apples after reducing the heat to 350, like a tarte aux pommes.
This was apparently a 19th c. Thanksgiving favorite, and having made it I can see why.