Home Front Friday: Victory Apple Pie

Home Front Friday is a regular series that highlights the can do spirit on the Home Front during World War II and illustrates how that spirit is still alive today!

Representative of so much more than a rich blend of apples and sugar tucked into a flaky crust, apple pie may have faced recipe changes during WWII due to the rationing of ingredients, but it did not find itself on the back burner when it came to baked goods. When soldiers on the Front thought apple pie, they thought home, and knew that as they continued making advancements they’d be one, slow step closer to reuniting with their family, friends, and a classic apple pie.

From The Victory Binding of the American Woman’s Cook Book: Wartime Edition

The phrase, “as American as motherhood and apple pie,” rose in popularity from soldiers who answered reporters that they fought, “for mom and for apple pie.” If you have more interest in why we’re as American as apple pie, follow this link to the Huffington Post article that explains where apple pie originated and why it has become such a popular identifier for Americans.

On the Home Front, extravagant desserts were frowned upon because of the type and amount of ingredients they called for, but in the case of pie, adjustments were easily, and necessarily, made. A few ingredients for an apple pie were items on the ration list, most well-known is probably sugar. In the following recipe, sugar is used. So, whoever was making this pie, would have to make sure that they have the correct amount of stamps left to purchase sugar. Eggs were also rationed. If a person was out of eggs and no longer had the correct amount of stamps to purchase eggs, baking soda could be used in their places. 2 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda can be used in place of 1 egg, so in the following recipe, you would use the equivalent amount of baking soda for three eggs.

Victory Apple Pie recipe from The Victory Binding of the American Woman’s Cook Book: Wartime Edition.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup potato water
• 1/2 cup yeast
• 1/3 cup riced potatoes
• 3/4 sugar
• 1/3 cup shoteneing, melted
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sifted flour
• 6 apples
• Cinnamon

Step 1: Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Step 2: Combine potato water, crumbled yeast, cooled potatoes and 1/4 cup sugar.

Step 3: Let it rise for 1 hour.

Step 4: After the 1 hour, add:

• 1/3 cup shortening
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• Flour – the recipe calls for about one cup on the dough to make it stiff, but I had to use about 2.5 cups.

Step 5: Knead the dough well.

Step 6: Let it rise until double in bulk. This took about an hour.

Step 7: Roll out the dough into 2 circles about 1/2 inch thick.

Step 8: Place in two greased (or one) pie pans and press the dough to the edges.

Step 9: Cut the apples into eighths and arrange them on the dough.

Step 10: Beat the remaining eggs, add the remaining sugar, and pour this mix over the apples.

Mary Mutz, again, 1943 New Mexico baking apple pie. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Step 11: Sprinkle with cinnamon, and cover it with a top layer of dough.

Step 12: Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.

Mary Mutz cooking her apple pie in 1943 New Mexico. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Enjoy!

Posted by Camille Weber, Education Intern and Lauren Handley, Assistant Director of Education for Public Programs at The National WWII Museum.