79 apple custard recipes

Three layers of fall flavor: a press-in oat crust, sour cream custard filling loaded with cinnamon apples, and a buttery brown sugar crumble on top. No pie dough skills required.

Pennsylvania Dutch cake-and-custard pie: a soft cake batter and a spiced applesauce-molasses custard poured into one crust bake into two distinct layers, finished with a coffee glaze. A clever heritage dessert.

Spiced gherkin pickles layered with whole cloves and cinnamon, then bathed in a hot apple cider vinegar brine sweetened with sugar and dry mustard. An old Pennsylvania Dutch crock-pickle recipe with a sweet-tart bite.

No-cook minty apple tomato chutney with Granny Smith apples, ripe tomatoes, bell pepper, raisins, and fresh mint. Cures for ten days into a tangy condiment.

A plateful of refreshing salad that has mixed greens, apples, and smoked cheddar tossed with a red wine vinegar and olive oil vinaigrette.

Spiced chickpea hummus blended with cumin, coriander, ginger, turmeric, and tahini. Food processor makes it silky smooth. Chill before serving with pita or vegetables.

Lentil and potato veggie burgers bound with cornmeal and brightened with mustard, soy sauce and vegetable juice. Plant-based, freezer-friendly patties that hold their shape on the grill or in the oven.

The salty prosciutto and creamy goat cheese works deliciously well with the caramelized pears and maple candied walnuts. It's packed with deliciousness and it's also good for you.

Pennsylvania-style cucumber pickles with olive oil, dry mustard, black pepper, and apple cider vinegar. Salt overnight, jar them up, and wait 6 weeks for a bold, mustardy pickle.

Horn and Hardart's famous baked beans with navy beans, molasses, bacon, dry mustard, and cayenne slow-baked for 4 hours. A legendary automat recipe made from scratch.

The Colonel’s Baked Beans used to be baked and made fresh daily. Now there made with a can of Navy Beans made by Hanover and a bag of sauce and precooked frozen bacon. When it is needed, it is just microwave and there you go.

Restaurant-style plum chutney with blood plums, apples, currants, ginger, curry powder, and brown sugar. A big-batch preserve that improves with age. Great for gifting.

Homemade Chinese duck sauce from fresh plums and apricots simmered with ginger, mustard seed, cinnamon, and apple cider vinegar. A sweet-tangy condiment that needs two weeks to mature in the jar.

Ice-water pickles: quartered cucumbers chilled in ice water, packed over onions, and covered with a boiling apple cider vinegar and mustard seed brine. Sweet, crisp, classic refrigerator pickles.

Granny Fearing's baked beans: a Southern-style classic with canned pork and beans doctored up with ketchup, molasses, brown sugar, and smoked bacon. A sweet-and-smoky side ready in 90 minutes.

This relish is based on a prize-winning English recipe of more than a generation ago. It is less sweet than traditional chutneys; most of its sweetness comes not from sugar, but from apples, dates, and parsnips. I generally use Winesap apples but any well-flavored, crisp eating apple will do.