Caramel Apple Crisp Pie ... Oh, my!
Somehow, before Tom and I tuned in, Jessica and others in the studio with her at the time had started a discussion of listeners' favorite pies. Well, that was easy — Caramel Apple Crisp Pie! I had already been planning to make one, so the idea had been swirling around in my brain. First of all, it's just the proper thing to do in the Fall; but also, Tom is not an apple pie fan (gasp!), so I had to bake this in order to redeem the treasure that I believe the dessert to be.
Tom and I made a pledge to help the radio station, and I claimed Caramel Apple Crisp Pie —combining a trifecta of desserts: apple pie, apple crisp and caramel apples -- to be my very favorite. It's apple crisp baked in a pie crust, topped off perfectly with a drizzle of caramel sauce ... an idea to which I give full credit to Jeremy, who suggested it several years ago in a moment of sheer brilliance.
And so, then it was necessary to bake this glorious specimen ... and bake I did. If I'd been at home rather than at Tom's, I'd have added a bit of cornstarch and a touch of cider to the apple mixture and then cooked it on the stovetop to give it a bit of a gel to bind the filling together better.
But since I didn't have either of those ingredients with me, I made it according to the instructions given below and that means the apple chunks have a bit of a tendency to fall out of the crust. Oh, well ... it hardly impacts the flavor, only the aesthetics. It's still luscious and sweet and slightly spicy and just wonderful!
So if you're tired of plain ol' apple pie, I invite you to bake this one. It's quick, it's easy, and it's absolutely divine.
Caramel Apple Crisp Pie
1 crust for a 9-inch pie pan
Filling:
1 3-pound bag apples
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter
Topping:
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 packet instant oatmeal (I used Maple Nut)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
6 ounces caramel ice cream topping
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place crust into a 9-inch pie pan.
Filling: Peel, core, and chop the apples into 3/4-inch pieces. Place into a large bowl and mix together with the sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon. Place the apples into the pie crust and dot with the butter.
Topping: Combine the butter, flour, brown sugar, oatmeal and walnuts in the same mixing bowl that you used for the filling ('cause there's no reason to wash extra dishes, right???). Spread over the apples. Drizzle the caramel sauce over the top of the pie.
Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for 30-40 minutes more until apples are tender when poked with a knife. (There's a lot of variation for this last step, depending upon the type of apple used, the juiciness, etc.) Check on the pie mid-way through the baking; if the topping is getting too dark, cover it with a piece of foil.
Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream, if desired.
Mary Bilyeu has won or placed in more than 60 cooking contests and writes about her adventures in the kitchen. The phrase "You Should Only Be Happy" (written in Hebrew on the stone pictured next to the blog's title) comes from Deuteronomy 16:15 and is a wish for all her readers as they cook along with her ... may you always be happy here. Check out her blog -- Food Floozie -- in which she cooks, reviews restaurants and generally enthuses and effuses over all things food-related. Or send an e-mail to yentamary@gmail.com.
Comments
nickcarraweigh
Tue, Nov 9, 2010 : 12:20 p.m.
Oops. Forgot 1/4 c. of fluid for the homemade caramel sauce; water if you must, cider if you have it. Sorry.
nickcarraweigh
Tue, Nov 9, 2010 : 12:17 p.m.
There are plenty of recipes for this kind of pie, and some are a little better. Try drizzling the caramel sauce over the apples and put the crumb crust on top of that, for example, and the crust will brown. And if you want the caramel to form a glutinous sauce, make your own. Bring 3T flour, 1/2 c. unsalted butter (1 stick), 1/2 sugar and a 1/2 packed brown sugar to a boil, reduce it to simmer for 10 or 15 minutes, drizzle in 1t vanilla, and pour it over the apples in the pie. Walnuts and dried cranberries are nice in there, too. Then slide the whole sticky mess onto a cookie sheet in a 325 degree oven, forget about the various temperature permutations, and take it out before the smoke detector goes off, about 100 minutes later. It will make you proud to be an American, Sarah Palin notwithstanding.