Baking | Giveaway| Book Review … Fred Harveys French Apple Pie with Nutmeg Sauce … & a Shabby Apron Giveaway!

“Baked apples are at the core of modern thinking.”
Naomi Kobuko

French Apple Pie with Nutmeg SauceA rather unsettling beginning of 2012 with the internet playing truant for a plethora of reasons, blame nature for a lightning strike, or man for cutting the underground cables … whatever, but it left PAB very hungry. I’m back to fill the hollow feeling with a chic Shabby Apple Apron Giveaway, and a recipe for Fred Harveys French Apple Pie with Nutmeg Sauce. The apron and the pie both very charming with a promise of retro charm. The pie from a cookbook {Appetite For America} that goes even further, a trail that chronicles ‘meaty‘ chunks of American culinary history from the roaring twenties!!

First the giveaway. The Shabby Apple folk wrote in to say … “We appreciate the quality of your website and its air of culinary chic, and we’d love to offer your fashionable readers a Shabby Apple Giveaway! Shabby Apple’s “Boysenberry Pie” Collection of aprons features designer fabric in cheery prints and charming styles, blended together for a vintage-inspired look that’s altogether sweet. Each apron comes complete with a recipe for its namesake dessert.”  … Whats not to love about these???

Shabby Apple, an online boutique of women’s dresses, casual dresses, skirts, and women’s apparel that caters to a need to make women feel feminine and beautiful. They offer flirty, stylish dresses a woman can wear just as comfortably in the office, at a family dinner, or on a date. Shabby Apple is a fashion company for women, by women, and of women. I’m giving away one apron from their Boysenberry Pie Collection to one lucky winner.

HOW TO ENTER: To win a Shabby Apple apron {value for $32-$40}, you must leave a comment before 22nd January, 2012, telling me you …

To continue the nostalgia of the old world charm, I’m going to tempt you into making a simple and delicious French Apple Pie, pulled out from the pages of history. Serve it with a simple Nutmeg Sauce and it sends you back many years. This classic eating house comfort food dish was tarted up by the head Fred Harvey baker at the Los Angeles Union Station way back in the 1920’s!!The recipe comes from an entirely devourable book “APPETITE FOR AMERICA: How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built a Railroad Hospitality Empire that Civilized the Wild West“, penned by Stephen Fried who says, “Over the years, Fred Harvey has become something of an obsession, because it seems that the more I learn about him, his family, his business, and his world, the more I understand about my homeland, and how it came to be.” So who exactly was Fred Harvey?

An Englishman who came to America in the 1850s, he built a family and a career and then, in his early forties, started a revolutionary business feeding train passengers in the Wild West along the Santa Fe railroad. He became something much better understood today: the founding father of the American service industry. Fred Harvey ran all the restaurants and hotels along the country’s largest railroad, the Santa Fe between Chicago and Los Angeles.

This curious Englishman turned out to be more than just a brilliantly successful manager of hotels and restaurants and a true Horatio Alger story come to life (during the time when Alger actually was writing those stories). He created the first national chain of restaurants, of hotels, of newsstands, and of bookstores— in fact, the first national chain of anything— in America.

The restaurants and hotels run by this transplanted Londoner and his son did more than just revolutionize American dining and service. They became a driving force in helping the United States shed its envy of European society and begin to appreciate and even romanticize its own culture.

I often find the son completely immersed in the history channel America, the Story of the US on TV … taking in the history of America, from the American Indians, the Henry Ford car model, the railroad, oil, civil war, Confederate army, Abraham Lincoln, the Vietnam War … an extraordinary series indeed of how America was invented.While he devours history taught this way, I devour this book which deliciously crosses paths with the TV channel, as Fred’s grandson Freddy was an original partner in TWA with Charles Lindbergh and Henry Ford. ‘Appetite For America’ takes you back many nostalgic years, where times were simple. Hospitality was a different ball game, and culinary trails and entrepreneurship developed in a remarkable way. Unlike the chains of today, the Fred Harvey system was known for dramatically raising standards wherever it arrived, rather than eroding them. It turns out that being a fast- food nation was originally a good thing!Fred Harveys success story and his methods are still studied in graduate schools of hotel, restaurant, and personnel management, advertising, and marketing. “More than any single organization, the Fred Harvey System introduced America to Americans,” wrote a historian in the 1950s. As Prof Fried says, “whether we know it or not, we still live in Fred Harvey’s America”.

Stephen Fried is an award-winning investigative journalist and essayist, and an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s graduate school of journalism.
Links {with recipes} you might enjoy: Fred Harvey Cooks, Fred Harvey Cookbook Project

[print_this]Recipe: French Apple Pie with Nutmeg Sauce

Comfort food redefined. Takes you back to the good old days … a simple, comforting apple pie served with an even simpler nutmeg sauce. This classic eating house comfort food dish was tarted up by the head Fred Harvey baker at the Los Angeles Union Station way back in the 1920’s!

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients & Method:

  1. Recipe the Fred Harvey way!
  2. {I made half portion. The pastry recipe I used is from here}
  3. French Apple Pie:
  4. Pare and slice eight cups tart apples and place in the saucepan with one-half cup water to cover. Bring to a boil, and cook until tender, about five minutes.
  5. Add one-half cup sugar, mixing gently to avoid damaging the apples. Using slotted spoon, arrange apples in pie tin lined with pastry.
  6. In a small bowl, stir to mix one cup graham cracker crumbs, one half cup flour, and one-half cup sugar. Add one-third cup butter and a few drops of vanilla and stir thoroughly with a fork until mixture has a coarse, crumbly texture.
  7. Sprinkle the graham cracker topping evenly over apples.
  8. Place in oven pre-heated to four-hundred-fifty degrees and bake for thirty minutes, or until pastry turns light brown.
  9. Nutmeg Sauce:
  10. In a small saucepan, beat one egg yolk, one-half cup sugar and one-cup milk together well. Heat to just boiling and remove from heat immediately.
  11. Add one teaspoon nutmeg and stir thoroughly. {I added 1/2 a scraped vanilla bean too}

[/print_this]

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Also find me on The Rabid Baker, The Times of India

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Deeba @ PAB

About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.

44 thoughts on “Baking | Giveaway| Book Review … Fred Harveys French Apple Pie with Nutmeg Sauce … & a Shabby Apron Giveaway!”

  1. I love those approns! So cute and wonderfully retro. A pity the giveaway is only open to US residents…

    That Apple pie looks stunning and incredibly divine!

    Cheers,

    Rosa

    Reply

  3. I absolutely love everything on this website! The art work is so interesting. My favorites were the dresses – especially one titled “Ming” and the other “Shangai”. Guess I’m going for the Asian inspired stuff :):).

    I do have a US mailing address, and have “Like”d the site on FB. Don’t want to write my address here for everyone to see, so I guess you will email me if I win? Thanks!

    Reply

  4. We love “The Story of Us” over here. It is a wonderful companion documentary to learn so much about American history. Your pie looks fabulous and I was just recently introduced to that Women’s magazine. Good luck with the giveaway.

    Reply

  5. This pie looks like you definitely took it up a few notches, it is just amazing!

    I like Shabby Apple on facebook. They have so many beautiful dresses, and I love all the aprons (which I desperately need). If I had to choose one dress I like, it would be Joie de Vivre. The apron is an awesome giveaway.

    Reply

  7. This pie looks fabulous. And the Shabby Apple site (I liked them on Facebook) – oh my goodness – sooo many choices. i loved the dresses (Atlantic Fog was right up my alley).

    Reply

  8. Oh loved the story about Fred Harvey! I did like Shabby Apple on FB- thank you for introducing me to their site- loved a lot ofl their collections, especially Inca trail and academia!

    Reply

  10. Once again a delicious and beautiful post.. love the story about Harvey ..pie looks absolutly divine… just want to grab a slice ..Like NOW!

    Reply

  11. I liked Shabby Apple on Facebook, my favorite apron is definitely the Wildberry one, and I have a USA shipping address 🙂

    Reply

  12. I really like the apron Caramel Apple Pie! My favorite clothing item (or one of them) is the Red Fir dress

    I like Shabby Apple on FB and I do have a mailing address in the US 🙂 Thanks!

    Reply

  18. I like shabby apple on FB, and my favorite item on their site is the beauty mark dress…love that bow at the waist! I do have a US mailing address. Thanks for hosting the giveaway! 🙂

    Reply

  20. I am loving the Happy Talk dress- makes me think of Springtime, sunshine and daffodil flowers! Lovely! ps: I am looking forward to baking this pie…mmm!

    Reply

  21. I like Shabby apple on FB and even though I want them all I loved the nantucket dress.
    Lovely photos and recipe as always, Deeba!

    Reply

  26. I love aprons. The Wildberry Apron would be a lovely addition to my other 3 aprons. And the French Apple Pie reminds me of one my mother used to make. Delicious!

    Reply

  27. loved the recipe, loved the pictures … perfect weather for a true blue baking session ..and all the ideas i need are right here 🙂

    Reply

  28. What an interesting review and yummy looking cake. Nutmeg sauce? Gosh, that I haven’t tasted yet. 🙂 It is never too late.

    Reply

  29. I liked Shabby Apple on FB and I have a US mailing address.

    I have to pick just ONE dress??? I love the whole Academia line and the El Dorado dress…but my favorite is probably Bijou. Love the color!

    Reply

  30. 1. Like Shabby Apple on FB.
    2. Strawberry Shortcake is my favorite apron.
    3. Definitely have a US mailing address.
    4. Love the nutmeg spice with the apples!

    Cheers,

    *Heather*

    Reply

  31. i liked shabby apple on facebook… then i went and spent 20 minutes looking through their page! adorable stuff. i really love the vintage inspirations. i am particularly fond of the ingrid and the consultant dress. i’m headed back there to look through more now!!

    Reply

  34. I think my favorite thing about this pie is the adorable little snowflake cut-out on the top!(I like S.A.on FB and am now spending time trying to figure out how to spend my money!)

    Reply

    1. Hi Rachel,
      Sorry about the delay, but you have been picked winner for the apron giveaway. Congrats. Will forward your email to the Shabby Apple folk and they will be in touch with shortly.
      Thank you for participating in the giveaway!
      🙂

      Reply

  35. Liked Shabby Apple on Facebook, love the Ferris Wheel dress and I do have a USA mailing address.

    Oh, and I will be making this recipe. It looks divine.

    Reply

  36. Liking on FB. Picking something? Are you kidding? I love everything I’ve seen. I’ll just throw out a name- the V.P. dress. I could not choose. Thank you for bringing that site into my life.
    In the USA.

    Reply

  37. Didn’t see the comment I posted…so I am trying again.

    Liked Shabby Apple on Facebook, love the Ferris Wheel dress, and I do have a USA mailing address.

    Oh, and I will be making this recipe.

    Reply

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