Peggy Hill's Apple Brown Betty

Ever since Kyleen, the Texan New Yorker, pointed out that to me that if you Google "Peggy Hill's Apple Brown Betty" a link to a post on my blog from almost a year ago shows up as the number 1 link, I've been feeling a little guilty.  The post that got me up there on Google was a post for Frito Chili Pie and only mentioned Peggy Hill and Apple Brown Betty.  I feel like a bad girlfriend who's led all those people on without putting out.  But today is the day we remedy that. 

By the way, that happened a couple of months ago.  Since then I've dropped to number 3.  Which is a little strange considering that ever since that post, I've been getting fairly regular traffic from people looking for Peggy's Apple Brown Betty, but recently I've gotten a half dozen or more google searches for that every single day!  It makes me wonder if one of the episodes that features the Brown Betty has aired ln syndication lately. 

Happily on my part, for all of you "Peggy Hill's Apple Brown Betty" searchers on Google and Yahoo, here's your recipe.

I'll be honest.  I had never made or eaten it before. I looked at several recipes, all with variations on a theme but in general the dish seemed to be a cross between a crisp and and bread pudding.  I chose a recipe from Epicurious because I wanted to get something representative but also something from a site I felt pretty comfortable trusting.  I like all the recipe sites where anyone can upload recipes but a couple of times I've been disappointed in the past.  Not this time.  This Brown Betty turned out to be a simple, straight-forward, fresh-apple tasting dessert with a crunchy topping like crisp, but with a soft, comfort-carby mouth feel like a bread pudding. It wasn't nearly has heavy as I thought it would be which was a plus for these hot summer days.

Do you ever stop and think about how much our food is influenced by pop culture?  When I say Apple Brown Betty, everyone who watches King of the Hill immediately knows what I'm talking about.  Does the beverage Romulan Ale conjure up a memory?   How about Carmela's ricotta pie that bribed the reference letter for Meadow's college application or the baked ziti we drooled over for six seasons?  In Las Vegas, several of the 7-Elevens have been temporarily changed into Kwik-E-marts for the summer, selling "good Squishee", Krusty the Clown cereal, and Homer's pink donuts.  If you had the opportunity, would you go in?  I would. 

Food is so much a part of our culture in every facet: celebrations, family time, snacks, and even driven by our pop culture or there would be no market for the Star Trek Cookbook and Entertaining with the Sopranos and Artie Bucco's Sopranos family Cookbook. I suppose one could look down from one's nose and call it a travesty.  I call it fun.

Excuse me. I'm off in search for a recipe for Vulcan Plommuck soup.  Since Vulcans are vegetarians, it will probably be good for the diet...

Fairly heavy on the cardamom and nutmeg, Peggy's Brown Betty is my contribution to Weekend Herb Blogging this week. Created by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen, WHB is hosted this week by Susan of Food Blogga.  Sunday evening, Susan will have a list of all the herby spicy dishes cooked this week.

Taken from Epicurious Website:

Apple Brown Betty

ingredients

1 1/2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 cup sugar
3 cups 1/4-inch bread cubes
2 tablespoons melted butter
Grated rind of 1 lemon
2 pounds large apples
2 to 4 tablespoons cold water (optional)

preparation

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Combine the nutmeg and the sugar and set aside 2 tablespoons. Put the bread cubes in a bowl and toss with the rest of the sugar mixture, the melted butter, and the lemon rind.

Peel, core, and slice the apples into fairly thick wedges. Line the bottom of a heavy 1 1/2-quart casserole with 1 cup of the bread cubes. Layer half of the apples over the bread and top with 1/2 cup of the bread cubes. Layer the rest of the apples in the casserole and sprinkle with water. Cover with the rest of the bread cubes and evenly sprinkle the reserved 2 tablespoons of sugar over the top. Put the lid on the casserole or cover tightly with foil. Bake in the center of the preheated oven for 40 minutes. Take the lid off the betty, and bake for 10 to 15 minutes longer, or until apples are tender and the topping is brown.

Makes 4 servings.

In Pursuit of Flavor (© 1988), March 2000

Edna Lewis

Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and University Press of Virginia.

Cook's Notes:  No, I still can't follow a recipe to the letter very well so I doubled the water to 1/3 cup to give the apples something to steam in, cut the sugar in half because I'm trying to cut out a lot of my sweet tooth, and added a tsp of cardamom to the nutmeg/sugar mixture. Ooh la la. That was a great add.  Next time I'm going to try brown instead of white sugar and maybe a touch of vanilla to the butter. 

Comments

[Tanna]

Glenna, I'm really a big fan of the brown sugar so I know I'd do that.
This is just a great fun post! Food seems to always connect us doesn't it, right down to the TV.

[TexanNewYorker]

Wooohooo! Now that you've made it, I can't wait to make the Glenna's Version of Peggy Hill's Apple Brown Betty. :o) Three cheers for peer pressure and Google. ha!

[Kathe]

My personal favorite is "Wookiee Cookies - A Star Wars Cookbook" although only in title because I can't say I've bought and/or made anything from it.

OOOH! But maybe that's a good project for me and my 11 year old nephew this weekend during his visit! Barnes & Noble here I come!

I'll have to remember also to print this Apple Brown Betty Recipe, we do a Fall Corn Maze (cornmaze.com)/Apple Orchard Trip each fall and I'll need something to do with all of those delicious apples we pick!

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a140/katheflynn/Sunday%20Funday%20Autumn%2005/DSC04983.jpg

I really wish I could hit print and all of the recipes in your blog would spit out of my printer into a cookbook!

[Deborah]

I had to go back and look at your Frito Pie recipe - Frito Pie totally reminds me of growing up. It was a baseball game staple, and a family favorite when we were camping!!

[Auntie Miranda]

Betty looks wonderful. If you haven't tried it, the Splenda Brown Sugar BLEND is a must-try. You use half as much as the recipe calls for because it's half Splenda. I can't tell the difference. It's got me eating Oatmeal again.

[sher]

I love Peggy. I can hear her voice as she talks about her Brown Betty--and Frito Pie! It looks beauitful, but you better be careful, Peggy gets very upset if she suspects other people bake a better BB than her!

[DaviMack]

You might think of throwing some cayenne pepper in there, to give it a bit of a kick, too. It's strange ... but it works in apple crumbles, so I don't see why it wouldn't with this. And ground cloves, and some whole fennel seeds, just to add a random ... "interesting" bite. ;)

Recipes shouldn't be slavishly followed. They should be a shopping list and some idea of cooking vessel. :)

[Patricia Scarpin]

Glenna, this is delicious! Give me anything baked with apples and I'll have seconds and thirds. :)

[peabody]

It looks quite tasty...as long as I don't have to watch king of the hill while I make it...I'll be fine. :)

[Kalyn]

So that's what Brown Betty is. I confess, I never did know before. Sounds tasty, and I do like the idea of the lemon zest in here a lot.

[Glenna]

Tanna--I agree. I'll do that next time!

Kyleen--and I owe it all to you. :-)

Kathe--That's very sweet. Thank you so much.

Deborah--Yes, it's one of those memory things. I only make it MAYBE once a year but I sure enjoy it when I do.

Auntie--I thought about that too. For the first time, though, I wanted to try to follow the directions. Mostly. :-)

Sher--LOL! Yes! And what was the spaghetti she thought was sooooo "hers", regular spaghetti except she called it something with her name in it...

DM--I agree about recipes. That's part of the joke. I can't follow a recipe to save my life because I always play around with the ingredients or directions. But this one time I wanted to follow the directions exactly. I almost made it.

Patricia--Me too and this did taste pretty fresh and didn't seem overwhelmed by the bread. There were more apples.

Peabody--Oh noooooo! LOL! I love King of the Hill. It's like watching my neighborhood.

Kalyn--I know! Me neither. It was fun just for the novelty.

[Susan from Food Blogga]

Thanks for the sweet apple treat, Glenna! I'm with Kalyn on this one--I had never even heard of a Brown Betty. My mother-in-law makes a similar dish, but she calls it apple bread pudding. Whatever it's called, it's delicious! How can you not love apples and nutmeg? I know what you mean about The Soprano's too. I actually posted on pineapple ricotta pie around Easter time and referenced Carmela's ricotta pie. That episode was a hoot, wasn't it?

[Glenna]

Susan--Yes! Loved that episode. Really showed how touch Carmela can be. I'd never heard of the Brown Betty either until KofH but it was pretty good.

[Peter]

Glenna, first time visitor (thanks to WHB) and I've heard of brown betty(s) for years and now I'm ready to make it now that apples are coming in season. Also this is a "guy-friendly" dessert, hard to screw up!

[Glenna]

Peter--LOL! I like that! It is a guy-friendly dessert. My husband, Gene loved it.

[Mansi]

Hmm...all this sugary stuff revs up my appetite!!! apples are a great fruit and ideal for desserts! but I'd ask people not to recommend use of Splenda though, at least without some research. Pls visit this article for some more info.

http://funnfud.blogspot.com/2007/08/splenda-does-more-harm-than-good.html

[Lillipad]

On the show, Peggy mentions that her recipe adds orange juice.

[patrick]

peggie hill uses a cup of orange juice not water.

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1214113915]

Peggy didn't use nutmeg, that was Minh's improvement/addition to spite her.

[Alice Corbini]

Here's an old fashioned Brown Betty recipe dating back to 1916.

http://sites.google.com/site/readandcook/Home/brown-betty

[David]

Peggy Hill uses margarine, not butter. In fact in the Thanksgiving special where they are stranded in the airport she makes a point of it.

[Glenna]

You're right but I have to eat it :-) and we don't eat transfast because of my husbands heart disease.

Hey, thanks to everyone who commented! It was a fun recipe to try!

[Hank]

Haha, to the guy who said the nutmeg was Mihn's improvement, that is her improvement to everything it seems. I love Apple Brown Betty, and KOTH, so I searched for Peggy's recipe. My mom makes it totally different. She says she slices Granny Smith apples and sprinkles them with cinnamon and sugar, then makes a crumble for the top out of soft butter, and brown sugar. Then sprinkles that freely over the top and bakes it. I don't care though how unhealthy that is, it tastes great! :D

[Glenna]

Yum! Your version sounds wonderful!!!

[Linda]

Peggy Hill's Apple Brown Betty didn't include nutmeg! It was their neighbour Minh who tried to copy the recipe and added nutmeg to make it taste better!

[Glenna]

Thanks to everyone for commenting!