Friday, October 23, 2009

Apples!


Told you there would be more apple posts.  I've made three apple crisps already, and last weekend I decided to mix things up a bit and make a pie.  I've made the Gingerbread Apple Pie from VwaV before, but I've never eaten it.  I had made it for a contest a few years back, so I couldn't try it before I submitted it.  It did win an honorable mention, though!

If you're scared of making pies, this one is for you.  You don't need to be all fancy and roll out your dough.  You just mix the ingredients, smush most of it into the bottom of the pan and crumble the rest on top.
































See?  It doesn't have to look perfect or anything.  I love this pie because it has two different flavors which work so well with each other.  If you noticed that in that last picture the pie is on a cookie sheet, you should do the same thing.  Mine got really bubbly and spilled all over the sheet.  So it was much easier to clean that up than to clean out the whole oven.

This recipe calls for 2 pounds of granny smith apples, and says that it's about 8 apples.  I found this WAY off.  I used two or three cortlands and it was more than enough.  As you can see, it was piled very high.  It did cook down a lot though, yet still was high for a pie.















Someone over at SparkPeople was nice enough to post this recipe and get nutrition information.  So if you want to know how many calories are in this recipe, then be my guest.  I took a peak just now, and  they calculated this as 12 slices.  Yeah, okay.  I got 8 out of this, and ate about 5 or 6 of the slices.  No wonder I've gained at least 5 pounds since the beginning of September.

Gingerbread Apple Pie

Ingredients

Crust:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup Earth Balance, softened
1 tablespoon molasses
2 tablespoon cold water

Filling:

2 pounds Granny Smith apples (about 8), peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground or freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
pinch ground cloves
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 tablespoons arrowroot powder or cornstarch
 

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Make the crust:
Sift together the flour, sugar, spices, salt, and baking powder. Add the margarine one tablespoonful at a time and cut in with a pastry cutter, knife or your fingertips. Drizzle the molasses and water over the dough, mixing with your fingertips until the crumbs of dough begin to cling together. Set aside 1/2 cup of the dough. Gather together the rest of the dough and knead it into a ball. Press it evenly into the bottom and sides of a pie pan and bake for 10 minutes.

Make the filling:
While the crust bakes, combine in a mixing bowl all the filling ingredients except the arrowroot powder (or cornstarch). Sprinkle the arrowroot powder over the apple mixture and mix until the starch is dissolved.

Assemble the pie:
Fill the pie crust with the apple mixture, and crumble the remaining 1/2 cup of dough over the filling. Cover with foil and bake for 20 more minutes. Remove the foil and bake 30 minutes more; the filling should be bubbling and the apples should be tender. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Serves 8 - 12. Nutrition count is for 12 servings.

5 comments:

Trinity (of haiku tofu) said...

yummy yummy. that pie looks sooo good.

Lindsay Wolf said...

That looks amazing!!! :) I can't wait to try out that recipe! I just tried my hand at apple cider cupcakes today, and it's totally the time for apple season!

- Lindsay
www.kissmyvegan.blogspot.com

The Liberty Belle said...

That pie looks totally delicous! Thanks for sharing!

Sal - AlienOnToast said...

yum that looks great.

Unknown said...

anything with apples and cinnamon & i'm SOLD