Apples and Honey Pie for Rosh Hashanah

I’ve been on a bit of a pie kick this summer. It all started with some sour cherries from the greenmarket by my work. From there I moved on to peach, then blueberry. And much as I feel like I should still be going strong with the summer fruits—I mean, as of my writing this, temperatures are still in the 90s here in New York—Rosh Hashanah is coming.

So it seemed only natural to try turning the classic apples and honey combo into a pie. As much as I love exploring all of the simanim (symbolic foods) associated with the holiday, there’s something about plain old apples and honey that’s hard to resist.

I even bought some sweet little mini cookie cutters in the shape of an apple and a honeybee, respectively, in hopes of making my pie extra adorable. But I admit I’ve had some difficulty with summer pie baking, as you will no doubt notice if you examine these photos closely—my apples and honeybees look a little, well, deformed. I find my dough gets SO soft SO quickly, it’s more or less impossible to shape properly—by the time I’ve rolled out the dough, it’s melty already. If you have any tips for me (other blasting my A/C at full strength), please share!

Please note that this is a moister pie; I like my pies to have, as Mary Berry would say, soggy bottoms, so if you’re looking for a crisp bottom crust you won’t find that here.

While apple pie is not the first (or second, or last) thing you might think of when you think Jewish desserts, according to culinary historian Gil marks apple tart was a common Rosh Hashanah dessert among Hungarian Jews (alongside your classics, apple cake, apple strudel, and apple compote)—close enough, right? Apples also feature in the Rosh Hashanah fare of some Sephardic communities: there’s mansanada, a thick apple compote traditionally served as an appetizer, and, among Calcutta’s Jewish community, a dish of apples cooked in honey and flavored with rose water.

Since I already covered the history of apples and honey at Rosh Hashanah in my apples and honey smoothie post, I want to take this opportunity to share one of my favorite apple history anecdotes, albeit one that has less than nothing to do with Jewish history.

A few years ago I read a great little book called Apple, by Marcia Reiss. It was about . . . apples. (Did you know that apples originated in what is now Kazakhstan?) It included all kinds of interesting historical tidbits, but my favorite was this little bit of folklore dating to medieval (or thereabouts) England: on Twelfth Night (aka the twelfth day of Christmas) in cider-producing areas, townspeople would participate in a ritual called wassailing the trees.

It was kind of like Christmas caroling, but for apple trees: participants would go from tree to tree singing, drinking, and generally making lots of noise in an attempt to wake the trees from their winter slumber (since Twelfth Night falls conveniently just after the winter solstice). Isn’t that charming?

If I haven’t apples-and-honey’d you out, check out 1 Dish 4 the Road’s beautiful reminiscence of his beloved Auntie Ruth’s legendary Rosh Hashanah gatherings, with some eloquent musings about the significance of apples and honey.

Apples and Honey Pie

Vodka Pie Crust (courtesy of Serious Eats) 

2 ½ cups (12 ½ ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon table salt

2 tablespoons sugar

12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into ¼-inch slices

½ cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces

¼ cup cold vodka

¼ cup cold water

Process 1 ½ cups flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, about 2 one-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until homogeneous dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 15 seconds. Scrape bowl with spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade. Add remaining cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl.

Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. With spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together. Divide dough into two even balls and flatten each into 4-inch disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days.

Apples and Honey Filling

3 large, 4 medium, or 5 small apples, preferably firm varieties like Granny Smith, Mutsu, Pink Lady, or Jonathan, sliced thinly

¾ cup honey

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 tablespoons cornstarch, potato starch, or tapioca

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients thoroughly.

To Assemble

Remove one chilled disk of dough from refrigerator and let sit at room temperature 5 minutes to soften. Roll out the disk on a lightly floured surface to ⅛” thick (about 16″ in diameter). Transfer one round to a tempered-glass pie plate or parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet.

Transfer apples and honey filling into the bottom pie shell, and top with remaining dough, using a solid sheet, cutouts, or a lattice-top design. Trim away excess dough and refrigerate to ensure top crust is completely chilled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat to 400°F.

To Bake the Pie

Place chilled pie on a parchment-lined half-sheet pan. Bake 20 minutes, then lower temperature to 350°F and cover with tented foil. Continue baking until filling is bubbling, about 40 minutes longer. The time can vary considerably depending on the thickness and type of pie plate, the amount of top crust, how long the pie was refrigerated, et cetera.

Honey Glaze

¼ cup honey

Shortly before the pie is done baking, warm honey until it liquefies to the consistency of a thin glaze. As soon as you take the pie out of the oven, brush the top with the honey glaze.

Cool for approximately 3 hours. Serve slightly warm, at room temperature, or cold. Refrigerate leftovers, up to 4 days.

Sources: Apple (Marcia Reiss, 2014); Encyclopedia of Jewish Food (Gil Marks, 2010)

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