Hello last few days before Thanksgiving! What are your plans? I’ve got a big dinner coming up and am crossing fingers the weather stays nice. My dream has always been to serve Thanksgiving dinner outside on a sunny afternoon at a long table … but if it’s chilly and rainy that’s fine too, we’ll just be cozy inside. We’re cooking for 10 so things are going to be simple. I’m doing a big turkey, butternut squash risotto for the vegetarian main, a salad, lots of roasted sweet potatoes and my mom will contribute mashed potatoes, green beans, and cranberry sauce (I’ll also be doing other little things like gravy and stuffing, maybe cornbread as well). We’ll finish with pumpkin pies and an apple pie made using apples from our tree.
I did a recipe test last week for this pie because it’s a new-to-me recipe and I wanted to make sure it would be OK to serve at Thanksgiving dinner. Verdict: it is. I followed the basic formula for pie crust from Cannelle et Vanille: Nourishing, Gluten-Free Recipes for Every Meal and Mood. I chose a combination of almond flour and sorghum flour based on the weight of the amount of gluten-free flour called for in the formula and it was delicious! Hearty, flaky and just right. I have added a small bit of sugar to the crust in my version, because I like a tiny hit of sweetness from the crust, although the original recipe does not call for it. You could certainly leave it out.
What I’ve found lately when making apple pies is that when you use sweet apples – such as Golden Delicious – you don’t need much added sugar, if at all. So in this recipe I’ve just used 2 tablespoons of maple syrup to enhance the apples’ natural sweetness and add that slight maple undertone I really love. But if you want to skip even that, I think you could get away with it if your apples are nice and sweet. I know that Granny Smith or Gravenstein are touted as the “best” pie apple because they are tart, but I’d argue that it’s preferable to use a sweeter apple because you can cut way down on the added sugar. I like my pie filling to be soft and melty so a crisp apple for baking doesn’t do much for my purposes. Sweeter apples include Gala, Honeycrisp, Fuji, Ambrosia, Golden Delicious, and more.
If you end up giving this recipe a go, I’d love to hear what kind of apples you used, and how it turned out for you. Wishing you a very happy and delicious Thanksgiving!
Til next time- N x
Note: I will make this crust again using arrowroot, my preferred starch. But as I’ve made it with these ingredients quite successfully I am posting it as-is for you to try as well. I will plan to come back to update at a later date!
Makes 10 servings.
Make the double crust pie crust
155 grams /1 1/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon sorghum flour
55 grams/1/2 cup finely ground almond flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tablespoon maple, coconut or regular sugar
1 cup cold butter, in one-inch dice
1 cup ice water
In a large bowl, whisk together the sorghum and almond flours, potato and tapioca starches, salt and sugar. Cut in the butter using a fork and your hands, rubbing it in until the flour mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the water a tablespoon at a time until the dough comes together in a smooth ball and is not dry. Knead it slightly then divide into two halves, wrap in plastic, flatten, and let rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Make the filling
8 cups of apples, peeled, cored and sliced into a large bowl — use apples of choice, preferably very sweet ones such as Golden Delicious
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons maple syrup if needed
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F with a rimmed baking sheet inside. Rub a pie pan with butter.
Whisk together the cinnamon and nutmeg in a small bowl, then mix lightly through the apples. Stir in the maple syrup until apples are coated with syrup and spices.
Remove the crust from the fridge. Roll out the bottom layer and fit it into the pie pan. Pile the apples into the pan. Place top crust on pie, crimp the edges, and cut a few vents in the top.
Place pie on the baking sheet in the oven, and bake for about 55 minutes or until the crust is lightly browned, apples are cooked through, and the filling is bubbling. Turn off the oven and let the pie rest for another 5 minutes.
Remove pie from oven and let it cool thoroughly before serving. I like to wait at least 2-3 hours so the filling will fully set.
Gluten-Free Apple Pie
Course: fruit, gluten-free, naturally sweet, recipe4
servings