This recipe has always had me baffled.
Apples are cheap and plentiful, so why would
you need a replacement for them?
Apparently, apples were indeed hard to come by for mobile American pioneers heading West in the 1800s. It was they who first replaced apples with crackers in their pie recipes — certainly preferable to the alternative.
Ritz came up with its own Mock Apple Pie recipe in the 1930s. Though I was born much, MUCH later, I remember the recipe appearing on boxes of Ritz Crackers throughout my childhood.
Here's the Mock Apple Pie recipe as it appeared on the back of Ritz Cracker boxes in the 1970s:
Pastry for two-crust 9-inch pie
36 Ritz crackers
2 cups water
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
Grated rind of one lemon
Butter or margarine
Ground cinnamon
Roll out bottom crust of pastry and fit into 9-inch pie plate. Combine water, sugar and cream of tartar in saucepan, boil gently for 15 minutes. Add lemon juice and rind. Cool. Pour syrup over crackers, dot generously with margarine or butter and sprinkle with cinnamon. Cover with top crust. Trim and flute edges together. Cut slits in top crust to let steam escape. Bake in a hot oven (˚425 F) 30 to 35 minutes, until crust is crisp and golden. Serve warm. Cut into 6 to 8 pieces.
Click here to see a 1952 recipe for Banana Cream Pie.
Via JasonLiebig
