And here we are at last, in the final chapter of Agatha’s autobiography. The chapters do not balance according to the time passed, as she herself acknowledges in the opening sentences: “I am writing this in 1965. And that was in 1945. Twenty years, but it does not seem like twenty years.” Indeed, this period is raced through—perhaps because contentment and steady success do not a fascinating story make, and who knew that better than an author of murder mysteries?
Agatha scans over a few of her play productions—greatly underselling their significance; she is in fact the most successful female playwright of all time, and by a long shot. A little bit on further expeditions to the Near East for archaeological digs, which she continued to love. The delights of a grandson.
There are only a few passing mentions of food, and fewer still that she ate herself, like appalling “Scotch eggs” from the young cook in Nimrud. She speaks her abiding love for “fillet steaks and apples and raw blackberries,” and the near-impossibility of eating them now due to “teeth difficulties.” And that’s about it.
But, tellingly I think, she ends her story this way:
“A child says ‘Thank God for my good dinner.’
“What can I say at seventy-five? ‘Thank God for my good life, and for all the love that has been given to me.’”
Agatha lived just over a decade more after finishing those lines, still writing some extraordinary books. (I’m partial to Passenger to Frankfurt, despite its many detractors.) You’ll have to turn to biographies, rather than Agatha’s autobiography, to fill in the gaps of her last thirty years.
To wrap up this series, and in honor of her abiding love for apples, I present this very excellent pie recipe, which first appeared in my Theology & a Recipe newsletter. I am absolutely confident that she would have loved and devoured it, “teeth difficulties” notwithstanding.
Ginger-Apple Pie with Homemade Butter Crust
Filling:
4.5 lbs (2 kg) apples
½ c (120 mL) white sugar
1 tsp powdered ginger
¼ tsp salt
¼ c (60 mL) crystallized ginger, finely chopped
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
Dough:
12.5 oz (355 g) flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
20 Tbsp (280 g) unsalted butter, cut in cubes
ice water
Topping:
1 egg white
1 tsp sugar
Peel, core, and slice as thinly as you reasonably can the apples. Pile into a large pot or Dutch oven. Sprinkle in and then stir in the sugar, powdered ginger, and salt. Cover and cook about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, till the apples are collapsed but not applesauce. Set a colander over a large bowl and tip the apples in. Let drain a bit, then transfer the drained liquid back to the big pot. Bring to a boil and cook steadily until the liquid turns very foamy, and when you drag a rubber scraper along the bottom it leaves a clean trail that takes a couple seconds to fill back in. Shut off the heat. Return the cooked apples from the colander to the pot, stir well with the thickened liquid, and set aside. At this point you can cool them and let them sit overnight till you’re ready to bake.
Wondering what to do with yourself during those 20 minutes the apples were cooking? I’m so glad you asked. Put about ½ c (120 mL) water in a Pyrex-type measuring cup and a handful of ice. Now get out your food processor and pour into its bowl the flour, sugar, and salt; process just briefly to combine. Tip in the butter cubes and pulse, one second at a time, until it all comes together and turns into a homogenous sandy mixture. Pour off ¼ c (60 mL) ice water into the dough. (The easiest way to do this is pour from the Pyrex cup into another container, so you don’t have errant ice cubes tumbling in.) Pulse again until homogenous again. Add just 2 Tbsp more, and pulse again. If it comes together completely, you can stop, but if it won’t form one big mass, add more ice water, 1 Tbsp at a time. It will depend on the texture of your flour, the ambient heat and humidity, the barometric pressure, and for all I know the relative ascendancy of the powers and principalities on that day. Pastry deserves its reputation for being difficult and moody. Split the dough into two halves (it’s OK if one is a little heavier than the other), flatten into a disc, wrap up in plastic, and stick in the fridge for at least an hour.
When you’re ready to bake, take the dough out of the fridge and let sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Sprinkle the counter with flour and roll out the slightly heavier disc of dough until it’s big enough to cover your pie plate amply with overhang all the way around. There’s no real trick to getting round dough; you just keep pushing from the center out toward the edges that look less round or less rolled out. Flip it and dust it with more flour if it starts to stick. When it’s to your liking, set in the pie plate and push down to fill in the edges without any air pockets. Scrape in the apple mixture and pat it down. Roll out the second disc of dough and set on top. With your fingers, go all the way around, pinching the bottom disk to the top. Use kitchen scissors to trim the edges and turn them up slightly. Beat your egg white lightly, then use a pastry brush (or your fingers) to coat the top, including the crimped part of the dough. (You’ll have plenty of egg white leftover, so add it back to the yolk and save it for scrambled eggs.) Sprinkle the 1 tsp sugar on top and use your fingers to spread it evenly on the dough, but not the crimped part (it will burn too fast). Finally, cut four vents into the dough.
Pop in the oven and let bake 40–50 minutes, depending on your oven’s efficiency. You want a well-browned crust and signs that the sugary apple liquid is bubbling just a little through the vents. Cool on a wire rack at least an hour and a half, that is, if you want to cut intact slices. If you can’t be bothered, you have my permission to dig right in… as long as you share with someone else.