#1: Bake an Apple-Bacon Pie

The late, great, Carl Sagan has a thing or two to say about apple pies:

To make an apple pie, you need wheat, apples, a pinch of this and that, and the heat of an oven. The ingredients are made of molecules—sugar, say, or water. The molecules, in turn, are made of atoms—carbon, oxgen, hydrogen and a few others. Where do these atoms come from? Except from hydrogen, they are all made in stars. A star is a kind of cosmic kitchen inside which atoms of hydrogen are cooked into heavier atoms. Stars condense from interstellar gas and dust, which are composed mostly of hydrogen. But the hydrogen was made in the Big Bang, the explosion that began the Cosmos. If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

Carl Sagan, Cosmos, London: Macdonald (1980), p. 218

He doesn’t have much to say about bacon though, but the internet has reached a consensus that just about everything is better with bacon on it. Even this website.

Baking an apple-bacon pie is in the number one spot on my List of 100 Things to Do Before I’m Off to See the Wizard. Which is just an alphabetical coincidence. As I recall, the idea started way back in 2007, when I was with friends in the south of France. One night, we were baking pancakes, and with the final batch of batter we created the mother of all pancakes to end all pancakes: a pancake with apple, Cointreau-soaked raisins, and bacon bits. From there, it was just a small mental step to apple-bacon pie.

One sunday, I happened to have some apples and bacon lying around. So I went for it. First thing I did was call my mother for her recipe. Because, let’s be honest: who bakes a better apple pie than your mother? Exactly, no one does. As it turns out, my mother follows the instructions on the back of the box. Which wasn’t exactly helpful. Luckily, the Second Law of the Internet states that if you can imagine it, it’s already on the internet. And indeed, you can find a ton of recipes easily.

I took the basic recipe for an apple pie (flour, apples, a pinch of this and that) and added bacon to it. Then, I applied the heat of an oven, and the result was a glorious, delicious apple pie. With bacon.

Apple-Bacon Pie
Delicious apple-bacon pie

While a lot of people seem to agree that things with bacon are better than the same thing without bacon, they seem to doubt the combination of apple pie and bacon. But let me tell you, it works. If pancakes with apple and bacon work, then so does apple pie. It’s just a matter of contrasting flavors and textures. Sweet and soft apples, and crunchy, salty—delicious—bacon. Definately worth a repeat.