Come to The Book Nook, meet Joyce Zeller, get Maddie’s Choice and sample Mock Apple Pie!
The Book Nook, located in the Pine Mountain Village Shopping Center on Highway 62 in Eureka Springs, will host a book signing for author Joyce Zeller’s new romance, Maddie’s Choice. The signing will be from 4:00p.m. – 7:00p.m., Saturday, October 5.
The first thirty guests will have a chance to sample Mock Apple Pie, a dessert served at the barbecue pot-luck dinner in Maddie’s Choice.
The recipe, a creation of Ritz Crackers, dates back to 1934 and is unusual because it doesn’t contain apples. It is made with Ritz crackers and a lemon-flavored syrup. This year it celebrates its 79th anniversary and has become an American icon of home cooking.
Maddie’s Choice is set on a cattle ranch in Arkansas near the small town of Peachville, Pop. 500, which resembles Hindsville, Arkansas. It is a modern story about a New York romance writer with writer’s block who finds her muse in a disheartened cowboy, a war hero.
Mock Apple Pie came out of the depression era. In 1934 there was very little money for food and desperate cooks were looking for anything that might satisfy hungry families. The Ritz Cracker people came up with this and t became an instant success, and a favorite at pot luck suppers . . . an American icon right up there with Green Bean Casserole. I featured this in one of my latest blogs along with Desperation Cake, made of almost nothing. Other depression favorites were white bread and gravy, if you were lucky enough to have some left over from Sunday pot roast or, if you were “rich” that week, potato chips and gravy. In the South, biscuits and chocolate gravy and Poke Salit, which is not only nasty stuff, but can be poisonous if you use the wrong leaves.
The recipe is tricky. The secret is getting the syrup exactly right. My first two attempts failed when I simmered the syrup too long and ended up with a solid rock after the pie baked.
MOCK APPLE PIE
Pastry for a two crust 9 inch pie
36 Ritz Crackers, coarsely broken
1 3/4 cups water
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
zest of one lemon
2 tablespoons margarine or butter
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2teaspoon vanilla
1. Place cracker crumbs in pie crust
2. Heat sugar, water and cream of tartar in saucepan to a rolling boil. Immediately lower heat to simmer. Simmer for 15 minutes. Syrup should just begin to reduce to about 2 1/2 cups.
3. Add lemon zest, juice, and vanilla. Cool until barely warm.
4. Pour syrup over crackers until just covering crumbs, probably no more than two cups. Dot with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon.
5. Roll out remaining pastry; place over pie, trim and seal edges.
6. Bake at 425 for maybe 30 minutes. Watch closely. You want light, golden, crisp crust.
This pie must cool completely, several hours, before cutting into ten servings. It is even better kept at room temperature overnight.
This is a sweet dessert. One serving has 413 calories and 63 g carbohydrates.
Enjoy,
Joyce
