#96 – SALTED CARAMEL APPLE PIE at FOUR & TWENTY BLACKBIRDS

Once again Time Out New York released their Top 100 Dishes of the year and once again, I’m going to eat my way through every one. And no price point or subway delay will stop me. In no particular order, here’s my take on their Top 100.

Pie was almost a full blown food trend in New York City. Many people were predicting that pie was on its way to overtaking the cupcake in popularity. But those damned cupcakes won’t die and pie is still trying to work up some hype. No doubt that the leaders of the pie revolution in this city would have been Four & Twenty Blackbirds, the modest bakery in the industrial heavy neighborhood of Gowanus, Brooklyn. When you walk through the door, you’re transported to a pie shop in New England somewhere. If you couldn’t see the urban jungle through the windows, you’d really have to check your map.

It’s sort of amazing that it’s taken us this long to stop by for some pie. We had talked about picking one up for Christmas last year or for a random birthday party, but somehow we always got sidetracked. Time Out listed the salted caramel apple pie in their Top Ten. And they’re not the only ones who’ve been raving about this flavor combination. The pie is so popular that it’s one of the few varieties they now offer year round.

It was the very beginning of apple season when we came by. In fact, they were still offering some summery pies, including the Stone Fruit. I tried this one first and I fell in love. It had a perfect buttery crisp crust and the filling (peaches, plums, apricots) was not too sweet and not too tart. But completely delectable.

Maybe I should have started with the Salted Caramel Apple because it was a bit of a letdown after the first one. The crust here was still fantastic (they’ve got that down), but the filling just didn’t wow me. It tasted like a slightly sweeter, richer apple filling. The only salt notes I got was from a touch on top of the crust. I’m not sure the filling itself was salted. And the caramel didn’t really shine either. The apples were rich and sweet, but I was expecting more than that. Time Out had also mentioned that they used other seasonings like cinnamon and Angostura bitters. Netiher of those flavors really came through.

Perhaps you need to order an entire pie as opposed to just a slice to get the full experience. It was definitely a good pie, but I don’t think it lived up to the promise of the name (salted caramel) or the level of hype it’s received. That being said, the pie makers here definitely know what they’re doing and could be poised to take over the city. Cupcakes better watch their backs.

Would Four & Twenty Blackbird’s Salted Caramel Apple Pie make my Top 100 of the year? Probably not on this go round. I’d be happy to try it again and see if it earns more than a 7 out of 10 and in the meantime, I’d like to work my way through their entire rotating menu.