Apple Pie with Cheese Two-Hundredth Post | Kaylee Turner

Two hundredth post. Four years of the green notebook. The first post went up on a Sunday in March of 2016 when I was fourteen years old, standing at Mama’s stove with a pot of pinto beans and a dollar-bin notebook open on the kitchen table. The two-hundredth goes up today, a Sunday in late January of 2020, when I am eighteen years old, working second shift at a plastic-container factory off North Peoria, dating a HVAC apprentice from Owasso named Dustin Turner, and still living in Mama’s rental house in Broken Arrow. The math of two hundred posts across forty-six months is approximately one post a week, which is exactly what the project has been since it started.

I have not stopped writing across the past four years. I have not stopped cooking. The factory pays twelve dollars an hour, which is one dollar more than Sonic paid me at sixteen and three dollars more than the daycare paid me at seventeen, and the math works out to about three hundred and forty dollars a week after taxes when I can pull a full shift, which is most weeks now since the line manager has stopped asking me to take Wednesdays off. The kitchen at home is the kitchen at home. The pantry shelf has the same canning jars I put up in March of 2017 with the seal still holding. The basil plant Mrs. Henderson gave me in 2017 is in its third repotted state and is approximately the size of a small bush.

I made apple pie with cheese for the two-hundredth post because the dish is one of those classic American regional combinations that lives in old midwestern recipe memory and that nobody under sixty makes anymore — a slice of sharp cheddar melted on top of a warm slice of apple pie, the way pie was eaten in midwestern and northeastern American diners through the 1960s. The cheddar cuts the sweetness and adds savory depth. Mrs. Henderson had taught me about the combination in 2017 when she had brought a slice of her own pie over to the back porch one September afternoon with a piece of cheddar on top, and I had said, Mrs. Henderson, what is on this, and she had said, baby, this is how my mother served apple pie in 1948, and I had been keeping the combination on the rotation ever since.

Apple Pie with Cheese

Prep Time: 30 min | Cook Time: 55 min | Total Time: 1 hr 25 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

2 rounds pie crust dough (homemade or store-bought), chilled
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, finely shredded, divided
6 medium apples (Granny Smith or Honeycrisp), peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg, beaten (for egg wash)
1 tablespoon coarse sugar (for topping)

Instructions

Preheat. Heat oven to 425°F with a rack in the lower third. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and set aside.
Make the filling. In a large bowl, toss the sliced apples with both sugars, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and lemon juice until evenly coated. Let sit 10 minutes while you prepare the crust.
Fit the bottom crust. Roll one round of dough and fit it into a 9-inch pie dish, leaving a 1-inch overhang. Scatter 1/2 cup of the shredded cheddar evenly over the bottom crust.
Fill the pie. Spoon the apple mixture over the cheese layer, mounding it slightly in the center. Dot the top of the filling with butter pieces, then scatter the remaining 1/2 cup cheddar over the apples.
Add the top crust. Roll the second dough round and lay it over the filling. Trim any excess, then fold the edges under and crimp firmly to seal. Cut 5–6 small slits in the top crust to vent steam.
Finish and bake. Brush the top crust with beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Set the pie on the prepared baking sheet. Bake at 425°F for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 375°F and bake an additional 38–42 minutes, until the crust is deep golden and the filling is visibly bubbling through the slits.
Cool before slicing. Transfer to a wire rack and cool at least 1 hour before cutting—this lets the filling set so it doesn’t run. Serve warm or at room temperature, with extra sliced sharp cheddar on the side if you like.

Nutrition (per serving)

Apple Pie with Cheese — The Two-Hundredth Post