The sour apples that drop from the trees early in the autumn, make an excellent pan pie without being pared. The skin then contains much of the richness of the apple, and is often so thin, that when cooked, it cannot be distinguished from the pulp. There are few articles of diet so healthy and palatable as pan pie, that are prepared with so little trouble and expense.

Where a brick oven is used, the following is a good receipt.

Take a potters ware pan, that will hold a gallon, and fill it with apples, quartered and cored; in winter pare the apples; roll out a piece of light bread dough, and lay upon the top; butter the edge of the pan to prevent the dough from sticking to it; cut an opening in the crust to allow the steam to escape, and put it into the oven. After about two hours draw it out and remove the crust, sweeten it with good molasses, or, if you choose, coarse sugar. Some persons use both. Put in a few sticks of cinnamon or some allspice, and a piece of butter as large as a nut. Stir it up thoroughly from the bottom. Your taste must guide you as to the quantity of sugar or molasses. Break up the bread crust and put into the apple. If it is very moist, return the pan uncovered to the oven; but if dry enough, cover it with an old plate; let it stand four or five hours.

There are various ways of making this dish. Some persons prefer to put in the molasses at first, and others use only sugar. It is very easy to jmprove it by rolling a little butter into the dough, exactly as in pie-crust; and if this is done once only, it makes the crust much more tender. Some persons put any crusts or pieces of bread they happen to have, into the apple, and if the crust that was baked with it is thin, it is a very good way.

Another

To make a pan pie to bake in a stove oven, or range, cover the bottom of a deep dish with a layer of stewed apple; spread over it brown sugar enough to make it sweet, scatter in a little powdered cinnamon, and add two or three bits of butter the size of a filbert; then lay in pieces of plain pie crust or biscuit, baked rather brown, or crusts of light bread; spread a thick layer of apple over the pieces, scatter more cinnamon, and pour over the whole molasses enough to sweeten the upper layer of apple, then bake it in a moderate heat an hour and a half, or two hours. It is the best way to make it while the stewed apple is hot.