Recipe: Flambéed Apple Pie Wednesdae inspired by Addams Family Values

There aren’t a whole lot of seasonally-appropriate movies for this break between the wealth of Halloween movies and Christmas movies, but I still have a couple that go into my movie-watching rotation every year. One is The Nightmare Before Christmas (of course), and the other is Addams Family Values. Between that dark & spooky Addams family aesthetic, and the Thanksgiving Pageant massacre at the end of the film, despite taking place during the summer, it’s the perfect movie for those of us who have a little trouble letting go of the Halloween season.

So this recipe isn’t a direct lift from the movie, but is an inspired-by creation. With Wednesday’s destruction of the whitewashed Thanksgiving pageant, it felt appropriate to take a traditional Thanksgiving dessert like apple pie and set it on fire. It also just so happens to be delicious.

Flambéed Apple Pie Ice Cream Wednesday

Pie Crust Cookies

• 2 1/2 cups flour

• 1 tsp salt

• 2 tbsp sugar

• 20 tbsp. chilled butter (2.5 sticks), cut in 1/2” pieces

• 1/4 cup ice water

• 1/4 cup bourbon

• 1 egg, beaten + 2 tbsp water for egg wash

• 1/4 cup demerara sugar + 1 tsp cinnamon for topping

Put the flour, salt and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine. Add butter and pulse until the butter pieces are roughly pea-sized. Add ice water & bourbon a few tablespoons at a time & pulse to combine until the dough starts to clump and stick together. Divide the dough in 2, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 350°F. On a well-floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4” thickness. Cut our strands for braids or other cookie-shapes of your choice. Transfer to a parchment-lined cookie sheet, brush with egg wash and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar topping. Bake for 10-14 minutes, until golden brown.

Flambéed Apples

• 2 granny smith apples, peeled, cored & sliced

• 1 tbsp lemon juice

• 2 tbsp butter

• 2 tbsp brown sugar

• 2 oz bourbon

• cinnamon, for sprinkling

• vanilla ice cream

Sprinkle apples with lemon juice to prevent browning. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add apples and saute until crisp-tender, about 10 minutes. Add sugar and stir until melted and apples are well-coated. Add bourbon and light on fire. (Be careful. Keep a lid for your saucepan handy just in case.). Sprinkle with cinnnamon, shake the pan until the fire burns out.

To serve, spoon warm apples onto vanilla ice cream & decorate with pie crust cookies.