Apple & Elderberry Pie

from Apple Pie by Ken Haedrich (originally from our friend Nancy Phillips, an herbalist, gardener and wife of orchardist, Michael Phillips)

Make this pie with sweet apples to balance out the bitterness of the elderberries. Rumor has it that if the apples don’t keep the doctor away, the elderberries will.

Ingredients:
Bottom Dough:
• 1 1⁄4 cup flour
• 1 stick chilled butter - cut into cubes
• pinch of sugar
• pinch of salt
• 2-3 Tbs ice water

Pie Filling:
• 6 cups apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
• 2 cups elderberries
• 1⁄2 cup honey
• 1 Tbs lemon juice
• 2 Tbs sugar
• 1 Tbs cornstarch
• pinch of cloves
• pinch of ginger

Oat Crumble Top:
• 1 cup flour
• 1⁄2 cup oats
• 2/3 cups light brown sugar
• 1⁄4 tsp salt
• 1⁄4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 stick chilled butter - cut into cubes

Directions:

  1. Mix the dry ingredients. Add the cubes of the butter, and mix them into the dry ingredients with your fingers.

  2. Once the dough resembles sand with peas in it, add the water. You can add more if the dough is too dry; you want the dough to stick to itself well.

  3. Form the dough into a disc, and wrap it in waxed paper. Chill for at least 30 minutes.

  4. Mix the apples with the other pie filling ingredients, and let sit.

  5. Preheat the oven to 400°F.

  6. Roll out the crust, and lay it into a deep-dish pie plate. Add the filling.

  7. Bake the pie for about 30 minutes in the middle of your oven.

  8. While it’s baking, mix the dry ingredients for the crumble top in the food processor, and then add the cubes of butter and pulse several times.

  9. After 30 minutes remove the pie from the oven, and add the topping.

  10. Turn your oven down to 375°F, and return the pie to the oven.

  11. Bake the pie for an additional 30 minutes. After 15 minutes check the pie; cover the crust with foil if it’s getting too dark.