Cheese-apples Make Me a Winner (Once)

        When I was a junior at Sandy Springs High School, in Sandy Springs, Georgia, I saw a notice about a scholarship contest sponsored by the Pyrofax Gas Company: "Bake your way to a BA." There were two requirements: write an essay on "Why I Want to Go to College" and submit a recipe. The rules specified that the recipe should be easy. I needed a scholarship. I was a good writer, and my mother's deep-dish apple pie was really easy, so I entered the contest.

          I wasn't surprised when I won the essay part, but I was chagrinned to realize that I hadn't thought about the second step in the contest: a bake-off among contestants. I would now have to actually bake the pie. Nationwide, 864 contestants would compete in 36 preliminary cook-offs. Mine would be in Moultrie, Georgia, in two weeks.

          Could I learn to bake a pie in two weeks? Could I learn to cook with gas in two weeks? My family only had an electric oven, so I asked the Pyrofax Gas Company in Sandy Springs if I could use their oven to practice. They were glad to help, so every day after school I baked an apple pie at the Pyrofax Gas Company. The employees reaped the benefits in practice pies. So did my family. So did I, for in two weeks' time I felt ready.

          Moultrie is a small town in South Georgia. The Pyrofax Baking Contest was the biggest thing happening there that fall. I felt confident and well practiced as I peeled and cored my apples, cut in the butter and flour, added the sugar, mixed in the milk, spread the apples and crumb top in the pan, and put the pie in the gas oven. While it was baking, I rolled little bits of cheddar cheese into cheese apples, finishing each one with a blush of red food coloring and a sprig of mint for a stem. These little delicacies went on the hot apple pie when it came from the oven.

          The judges, all men, were having a ball. They loved my pie, but to tell the truth, although it is a very good deep-dish apple pie, it isn't that special. I think it was the cheese-apples that made the difference—oh, and the poem, an old saying I wrote on a note next to my entry: "Apple pie without the cheese/Is like a hug without the squeeze." When the master of ceremonies announced me as the winner, he read the poem to the audience. As he handed me my silver bowl, he gave me a hug—with the squeeze—and a big sleazy grin.

          But now I would have to bake my apple pie again, this time in Raleigh, North Carolina, one of three sites for the final cook-offs. This was not Moultrie any more! These kids were serious cooks. Their recipes were intimidating: red velvet cake, colonial innkeeper's nut pie, braided cheese bread, Amberitzy pie, blackberry jam cake. "Deep-dish apple pie" sounded as hick as Moultrie, Georgia, and I already felt outclassed, but I baked my pie, which was as good as it ever was, and used the cheese-apples and the poem, but these judges weren't seduced by cleverness. They were looking for good baking. Deep-dish apple pie was no match for cheesecake de luxe, baked by Anne Louise Alexick, from Lynchburg, Virginia, who took home the scholarship.

I am on the left, at the Raleigh competition.

          What I took home was a transistor radio, the compensation prize and a novelty item at the time. The radio has long since been displaced, but I still have the silver bowl I won in Moultrie, engraved withy my name and "1962 Pyrofax Baking Contest." I also have a recipe book titled "The Prize-winning Recipes from the Pyrofax Teen-age Baking Contest," with my name and recipe in the chapter called "Raleigh Grand Finals." So if anyone ever questions my abilities as a cook, I have a few proofs. It was all a long time ago, but if anyone wants further proof, I can still mix up a good deep-dish apple pie with cheese-apples—and a poem.

Next week: "Waiting Tables at Johannan's"
Recipes from this post:
        Deep-dish apple pie
        Cheesecake de Luxe

DEEP-DISH APPLE PIE
Here is the recipe exactly as it appears in the Pyrofax Baking Contest cookbook.

1/3 cup sugar
7-9 apples, peeled and quartered
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Sprinkle 1/3 cup sugar over apples in greased baking dish. Combine 3/4 cup sugar with remaining ingredients; mix to consistency of fine crumbs. Cover apples completely. Bake at 45º 10 minutes. Lower heat to 400º, bake 20 minutes longer. Serve with Cheese-Apples.

CHEESE-APPLES: Soften sharp cheddar cheese; roll into small balls. Stick clove in bottom and mint leaf in top.

CHEESECAKE DE LUXE
This is the winning recipe, by Anne Louise Alexick, from Lynchburg, Virginia. It's easy to see why the deep-dish apple pie was no competition. [The photos below were of the recipe baked in a 6-inch pan because I didn't have a 7-inch springform pan. I tried to adjust the recipe mathematically to fit the smaller pan, but it seemed overfull. The recipe in the right-size pan shouldn't crack so badly. This one was still good.]

Ingredients
1 2/3 cups fine graham crackers
1/4 cup softened bvutter
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1 1/2 pounds cream cheese
1 tablespoon flour
1 lemon, grated peel
1/2 orange, grated peel
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
2 tablespoons heavy cream


Preparation

Make graham cracker crumbs if necessary. Zest or grate the lemon and orange. Preheat oven to 375º.
To make
Blend graham cracker crumbs, softened butter, and 1/4 cup of the sugar. Press crumbs firmly on bottom and sides of a 7-inch springform pan to 1/8-inch thickness. Bake at 375 º 8 minutes. Cool. Combine cream cheese, remaining sugar, flour, grated peels, and salt. Mix in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in cream. Turn into springform pan with baked crust. Bake at 500º 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 200º and bake 1 1/4 hours longer. Cool. (Cake will shrink as it cools.)