Apple and Cheese Pie

A savory pie with grated apples and cheese and a hint of spice

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City/Region: Germany | England

Time Period: 1553 | 1575

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Apple pie has been around for hundreds of years and has evolved into many different baked goods. There’s tarte tatin, apple turnovers, apple crisp, apple cobbler, and apple grunt, just to name a few. The earliest recipes for apple pie are filled with mashed apples, eventually turning to sliced apples in the late 16th century.

This recipe is from the mid-16th century and splits the difference by using grated apples. The filling comes from a German cookbook while the crust is from a contemporary English cookbook. The crust is really nice to work with and is very forgiving. You don’t have to blind bake it like I did, but it helps ensure that you don’t have a soggy bottom.

This pie really surprised me. The texture is soft and silky, and it comes across as more savory than sweet. The spices are there and help lift the other flavors and provide that hint of modern apple pie. Use a very mild cheese or you’ll lose the apple flavor completely. I would try it again with some sugar added to make it more dessert-like, but it’s really nice as-is.

“To make an apple tart.
Take apples, peel them and grate them, then fry them in fat. Then add in as much grated cheese as apples, some ground cloves, a little ginger and cinnamon, two eggs. Mix it all together. Then make a dough as for a flat cake, and add a little fat into it so that it does not rise, and from over and under, a little heat, let it bake.”

— Das Kochbuch der Sabina Welserin by Sabina Welserin, 1553

“To make a short paest for tarte.
Take fyne floure and a curtsey of fayre water and a dysche of swete butter and a lyttel saffron, and the yolckes of two eggs and make it thynne and as tender as ye maye. ”

— A Proper New Booke of Cookery, 1575

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Ingredients:

Crust

• 2 cups (240 g) flour
• 6 tablespoons (85 g) butter
• 2 egg yolks
• A pinch of saffron soaked in 1 tablespoon water
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) water

Filling

• 5 medium sweet apples
• 3 cups (340 g) grated cheese*, I used Emmentaler
• 2 eggs
• 1/8 teaspoon cloves
• 3/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons (43 g) butter or lard, for frying
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

*Use something fairly mild that is hard and grateable.

Instructions:

1. For the crust: Work the butter into the flour with your fingers. Add the egg yolks and the saffron water and work it in.
2. Slowly add the rest of the water a little at a time until the dough comes together. Don’t use any more water than you need to, you might not use it all. Cover the dough and let it rest for 30 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C).
4. Turn the rested dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll it out. Line a tart or pie pan with the dough and crimp the edges.
5. Blind bake the crust by lining the dough with foil and filling it with baking beans. Bake for 15 minutes. Take the beans and foil out, then return the crust to the oven and bake for another 5 minutes or until the base of the crust looks completely dry. Cool the crust completely before filling.
6. For the filling: Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
7. Peel the apples, then grate them.
8. Melt the butter or lard in a pan over medium heat. Add the apples and fry them for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly. You want some of the moisture to cook out and for the apples to be aromatic. Transfer the cooked apple to a bowl.
9. While the apple is still hot, mix in the cheese, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, and egg. The cheese will start to melt and help bind everything together. Spoon the mixture into the cooled crust and smooth the top.
10. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. If the crust starts to get too dark, use a pie shield or put some aluminum foil around the edge of the crust. The pie is done when the center is no longer liquidy and has just a slight wobble.
11. Take the pie out of the oven, let it cool completely, then serve it forth.

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