King Henry's Orange Pie

I was looking for recipes from the Renaissance that featured oranges, and I sort of serendipitously found a reference to "Orange Pyes" in The Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry VIII. In searching out an actual recipe for this, I found a redaction for "Apple and Orange Tart" at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/andrew/org/Medieval/www/src/contributed/grm/AS/cooking/apple-orange-tarte.html

Here's  my own version:

Make a pate type pastry pie crust with 3 1/2 cups flour, 3 egg yolks, 8 Tbsp butter and 1 tsp salt dissolved in 1 cup water. Cut in the butter and eggs, then mix in the salt & water. Work it together with finger poking and punching (not kneading) till its smooth. Wrap and chill overnight, but bring to room temp before rolling it out.

For the filling: 4 orange skins candied per the instructions for preserving whole oranges in The Good Huswifes Jewell (but I cut them in halves or quarters), which is to take the peels with still a bit of white on and soak them in water 10 days. The bath needs to be changed each day. Then boil the peels in 10 successive baths of water. Make up a sugar syrup by beating 10 egg whites with 2 lbs sugar and 2 1/2 qts water. Bring this to a boil, and you will have to keep skimming off the foam, but it will become less and less. Simmer the orange peels for 30 minutes, then turn off the heat and let them cool in the syrup. Discard the syrup afterward. (This process is in a previous post, I believe)

Peel and slice 4 apples (I like "Lady" or "Api" types for this). You are going to make layers of apple slices then oranges, sprinkled each layer with chopped bits of butter (about 3 Tbsp total) and a mixture of 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp dried orange peel pulverized.

Put on the top cover and bake at 350F for 45-55 min. I brushed mine with egg white to help it brown (and I chilled it first to help it keep its pretty shape).

Finally, glaze with a sugar syrup made from 1/3 cup sugar, 4 Tbsp rose water cooked to soft-ball stage. I mixed pomegranate juice in too, to give it a lovely pink color.