By Aaron Hutcherson
Does the world need another apple pie recipe? Probably not. But when it comes from André 3000, half of perhaps the best rap duo of all time, Outkast, the world takes notice.
The Atlanta rapper, whose real name is André Lauren Benjamin, shared his family recipe on Instagram last week, in an effort to raise money and awareness for the local Meals on Wheels chapter.
“The holidays are different this year because we can’t hang with our friends and families like we would normally. But for many of our elders, they may be lonely or food insecure now and much of the year,” he wrote.
The recipe itself calls for nothing more than canned biscuit dough, apple sauce, butter and optional salt. Admittedly, I had some difficulty assembling the hand pies as written. Simply folding flattened biscuit dough over a spoonful of apple sauce didn’t quite work for me.
Instead, I cradled it in my hand and then pinched the edges with my fingertips to keep the apple sauce from oozing out of the pastry as I tried to trap it inside its doughy cocoon. Then I crimped the edges with a fork for presentation before baking until golden.
The result was exactly what one would expect based on the ingredients: nothing remarkable. But as he raps in the Outkast song Gasoline Dreams, “Don't everybody like the taste of apple pie?” On the basis of apples baked with dough, this recipe delivers.
However, I'd recommend a dash of cinnamon mixed into the filling along with some extra sugar (particularly if you use no-sugar-added apple sauce) for more of that apple pie flavour we all know and love.
Perhaps a sprinkle of granulated sugar on the pies before baking or a dusting of confectioners’ sugar after to account for the outsize ratio of biscuit to apple filling would bring the dish more solidly into dessert territory. And leave out the salt; it’s savoury enough as is.
Making this recipe didn't produce spectacular results, but I don’t think that was the point. Raising awareness about Meals on Wheels and lonely and food insecure seniors is, because “the whole world loves it when you’re in the news”.
But if you do make it and want to see which member of Outkast is a better cook, then check out another recipe that’s part of the initiative: Big Boi’s video for banana pudding.