Boiled Cider Pie

For a dinner party on Saturday night I decided to make pie for dessert.  I had never made boiled cider pie before, but the recipe looked good.

Boiled cider is just that, cider that has boiled down to a syrup.  I boiled almost half a gallon of apple cider down to a cup of syrup.  Pour the cider in a big pot and boil until done.  Let cool before using in the pie recipe.

The pie recipe came from Marcia Adams' New Recipes from Quilt Country.  It's as easy as pie.  Literally.  You need pastry for a one-crust 9-inch pie and filling.

The filling:

4 eggs
1/3 c sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 c boiled cider
1 1/2 c whole milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
grated nutmeg

1.  Preheat oven to 400.  Line a 9-inch pie tin with the pastry for the crust.  Set aside.

2.  In a large bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, and salt and beat thoroughly.  Stir in the boiled cider, milk, and vanilla and combine.  Pour into the pastry shell.  Sprinkle nutmeg over the top.

3.  Bake the pie for 10 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350.  Bake for 55-60 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.  Remove pie from oven and cool on a rack, cover lightly, and refrigerate.

Easy, right?  The pie is more or less a custard pie.  As you can see in the bottom photo the cider and custard separated.  You taste the sourness of the cider but without an intense apple taste (when I tasted the syrup by itself it was really apple-ly).

I also made a whipped cream-based topping for the pie but the cream reverted back to its liquid form, rather than staying a foam.  It tasted fine but it is easier to just use whipped cream (pictured above). 

Comments

[zoe]

do i like cider pie? yum! I'm going to eat it all up!

[joe]

I don't know if Zoe would like this pie. It is more sour than sweet.

[tasteofbeirut]

Very interesting; I just made some muffins with apple cider molasses and they came out great; I would love to give this pie a whirl.