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Apple Harvest Pie
- Gluten-free pie shells from Whole Foods: As with Everything-Whole-Foods, these pie shells are pricey ($7.99 for a package of two shells as of yesterday) BUT in this case, they’re worth the cost. I use both shells to make one pie. (Also, you could buy a Gluten-free pie shell mix, but those are about $5 a package, and you have to do all the work. Believe me, the $7.99 pie shells are worth every penny.)
- 7-8 good-sized apples (if you’re using small apples, throw in an extra three or so)
- 1 lemon (you can use a couple of limes if in a pinch)
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup gluten-free flour (I like rice flour best, but a general mix of gluten-free baking flours also works well)
- 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- a few pads of butter (preferably unsalted, but salted works, too)
- 1 egg yolk
- handful of white sugar
- Turn on oven to 350 degrees.
- Thaw the gluten-free pie shells slightly, but not too long, only about an hour, else it will be hard to get the one out of its shell to use as the cover.
- Peel, core, and cut into thin slices the apples. Put the apple slices in a large bowl and add to them the juice of 1 lemon. Also add finely shredded lemon peel, just a few swipes against the small part of the grater. Add the vanilla. Mix well to coat all the apple slices with lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla. (I ran out of lemons recently but had a bunch of limes. I used three, since they don’t produce much juice, and I skipped the zest part. It worked beautifully.)
- In a separate, larger bowl, mix together the dry ingredients: brown sugar, flour, and spices. The trick to making great apple pie filling is to make sure your dry ingredients are thoroughly mixed before adding them to the apples, which are nice and wet with the lemon juice and vanilla. Add the apples to the mixed dry ingredients. You’ll know you have enough moisture in the apples if you start to see a nice caramely-looking goo appearing as you mix everything together.
- Pour the apple pie filling into one of the pie shells. Make sure you scrape out all of the goo from the bowl. You don’t want your apple filling to be dry. Top the apple filling with four small pads of butter.
- Take the remaining shell and cut away the zig-zag edge. You only need enough crust to cover the pie. Carefully place the second pie crust onto the apple pie. If it breaks, that’s fine. In fact, my saying is, The uglier the crust, the better the pie. Gently press together, as if stitching, the top crust to the edge of the bottom crust. Since the pie crust is sure to break as you’re placing it on top, you won’t need to make vent slits, BUT if you manage to get the top crust on without any breakage, make two or three slits with a knive. I also use the leftover edging from the second crust to make cool designs, or if my pie crust has broken too much, to patch it up. My girls love crust, so the edging always gets used.
- Finally, brush the pie crust with egg yolk, and then sprinkle a handful of sugar over your pie crust. This will make the pie crust turn out nicely browned and gorgeous.
- Bake for about 45 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the pie filling bubbling. Cool for at least an hour before you dig in.
Note: I adapted the pie filling recipe from Paula Deen’s Food Network site. On the pie crusts, you can also use store-bought shells that are not Gluten-free (and, hence, not expensive). These days the store-bought pie crusts are so good that it’s almost not worth making your crust. (Does that sound sacrilege to the purists out there? If so, Paula Deen’s site includes a link to a homemade pie crust.)
Enjoy your fall apples!
-Related to posts Apples For Sale and Pies Across America.
Mmmm! Looks & sounds yummy! I’ve adopted a lot of my recipes from Paula Deen! Love her! D
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I thought her apple pie filling recipe was easy and excellent. Of course, it called for regular flour, and I learned a bunch along the way that might be more intuitive for people who bake a lot but were big ah-has for me.
I also made a GF pumpkin pie and will share that recipe as well later.
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BTW, I have made five apple pies in a 7-day period. This is serious. What’s gotten into me?
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ybonesy, how was the flight? I love this post. I just showed your photos to Liz and she went HMMMMMMM. Great last photograph of the pie and apples. It’s so hard to capture good photographs of food items.
So you used lime instead of lemons? I would have thought that would have changed the taste. But I guess not. You are on a serious creative roll. It’s permeated every aspect of your life. Serious!
Liz and I watch Paula Deen once in a while. She is funny. And has that Southern sense of humor. It’s undeniable. Mom and I were talking about maybe doing a day river trip down to Savannah from Augusta. Just a day trip. But doesn’t that sound fun? Wouldn’t be getting off the boat to dine with Paula at her Savannah restaurant. But sure would be tempting.
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It was a good flight, QM. Not too many bumps, plus direct. The way I like it. And now I’m shivering in humid cold Portland, Oregon. I need to remember to bring a fleece everytime I come here. 8)
Yes, I thought the limes would also really change the flavor, and maybe they did, but I couldn’t tell. I made two with the limes instead of lemons, and they were delicious. And then Jim got a lemon last night, so I made the pumpkin pie with lemon zest, which it called for. Lemon zest adds a fresh, not-at-all-overpowering flavor.
Stopping at Paula Deen’s restaurant would be great, although I have to admit I’ve only seen her on the Food Network (I think that was the channel) once, when I went to my sister’s for Spring Break earlier this year. So I really don’t know that much about her. I’m not a “foodie,” as they call them.
Thanks for the compliment on the photos. I took them with my iPhone, and I’m going to go add that in a title when I get a chance. You’re right, it’s hard to capture food. Why is that? It seems like it would be so easy, but sheesh, it’s not at all. My photos always seem to come out so uninspired whilst the food I’m taking a shot of is the exact opposite. Any tips on food photo-taking?
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ybonesy, glad you made it safely. I bet it’s very humid and chilly in Portland this time of year. Did I tell you, we got 4.2 inches of snow in St. Paul today! (Only 2.4 in Minneapolis.) It was unbelievable. I was out driving for work today and it snowed almost the entire day. At one point, I drove by Como Park over in St. Paul and I could tell they were getting more snow than we were in Minneapolis. It was stunningly beautiful with the Fall trees turning under the white snow. I wish I had had my camera but the memory card was full so I didn’t bring it.
I did have my BlackBerry phone but by the time I realized it, the snow was starting to melt. Your iPhone takes great photos. I’m not an expert at food photography by any means. I don’t know why it’s so hard to shoot food. Getting the light right is the key, I think anyway. Anything other than natural daylight (or daylight bulbs) makes the food look gray and unappealing. Your shots are great. I think it’s something about the backlight, or the underlight on the pie. Light, light, light. I did get some good shots of Lake Michigan last weekend. The Fall light on the horizon and that storm we got. A breath of fresh air.
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I printed this recipe out for gluten-free apple pie, went to Whole Foods to purchase ingredients — out of gluten-free pie crusts! We called around everywhere — all out for over a week. I guess Thanksgiving wiped them out. We are going to a gluten-free Solstice celebration tonight and it sure would have been nice to make this pie, ybonesy! We settled for a gluten-free cheesecake and some cupcakes. When the crusts are back on the shelves, we’ll try this recipe.
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Liz made two apple pies following this recipe, but used the regular Whole Foods pie crusts. They were excellent. She took one to work yesterday. The other is half gone, eaten with Breyer’s Vanilla Ice Cream. Can’t wait to try the gluten-free version of the crust.
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[…] smell of fresh apple pie right out of the oven (check out this great apple pie recipe from ybonesy: 1-2-3! Apple Pie Gluten-Free!). Are you reminded of a computer company? Or perhaps a certain snake and the precursor to the Seven […]
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