Nightbird

by Alice Hoffman

  Pink Apple Pie

  The wonderful baker Mary Flanagan helped me to create a lovely pink apple pie with two different toppings, including a crumble-top variation. Best if shared with a friend. But isn’t everything?

  PASTRY INGREDIENTS

  1-1/2 cups flour

  3/4 cup butter

  1/4 cup sugar

  4-1/2 tablespoons cold water

  You can also use two premade 9-inch crusts bought at the market. Or see below for crumble-top variation.*

  FILLING INGREDIENTS

  6 to 8 medium apples

  1 cup seedless strawberry jam

  3 tablespoons seedless raspberry jam

  MAKING THE PASTRY

  Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter a nine-inch pie plate.

  Sift flour into bowl. Mix in butter (with your fingers!), smooshing it into flour. Add sugar and mix. Add cold water a little at a time (you may not need it all). Mix until it forms a dough.

  Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in fridge for 20 minutes.

  Remove dough from refrigerator. Let stand at room temperature for a few minutes if necessary until slightly softened.

  Divide pastry into two balls and roll out with rolling pin. Put one crust into pie plate and form to the plate’s size. Save the second crust for the top of the pie.

  MAKING THE FILLING

  Peel, core, and slice apples. Mix in strawberry jam and place the apple/jam mixture in pastry in pie plate. Dollop with spoonfuls of raspberry jam.

  Cover apple mixture with second pastry crust. Pinch crusts together with wet fingers around the sides.

  Pierce top of pie with fork (you can make a design if you’d like) to release air as it bakes.

  Bake for approximately 40 minutes at 375°F.

  *VARIATION: CRUMBLE TOPPING

  If using this topping, make half the pastry recipe above (3/4 cup flour, 6 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons sugar, 2-1/4 tablespoons cold water). This will make one crust. Fill the crust as above, then add topping.

  1 cup flour

  1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

  1/2 cup sugar

  Mix the flour with cut-up butter (with your fingers!) until it forms crumbs. Add sugar and mix. Sprinkle on top of pie.

  Bake for approximately 40 minutes at 375°F.

  Acknowledgments

  With extreme gratitude to the three people who believed in Nightbird and Twig from the start:

  My beloved publisher, Barbara Marcus

  My brilliant editor, Wendy Lamb

  My wonderful agent, Tina Wexler

  Many thanks also to the stellar art team at Random House: Isabel Warren-Lynch, Kate Gartner, and Trish Parcell. And thank you to Tracy Heydweiller in production and Tamar Schwartz in managing editorial.

  Thanks to Jenny Golub and Colleen Fellingham for their copyediting expertise. Many thanks to Dana Carey for help along the way.

  Thank you to the amazing artist Sophie Blackall for her inspiring vision and gorgeous red moon.

  Gratitude to my agents, Amanda Burden and Ron Bernstein.

  My thanks always to my readers, without whom my books would not come to life.

  My deepest gratitude is to Edward Eager, my favorite writer throughout my childhood, whose beautiful books introduced me to magic in the world. I would have been lost without those novels.

  About the Author

  ALICE HOFFMAN is the author of more than thirty bestselling works of fiction, including Practical Magic, also a major motion picture with Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman; Here on Earth, an Oprah Book club selection; the highly praised historical novel The Dovekeepers; and, most recently, The Museum of Extraordinary Things.

  Her books for teens include Green Angel, Green Witch, Incantation, The Foretelling, Indigo, and Aquamarine, also a major motion picture with Emma Roberts.