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Apple pie with almond butter Sauce

Making apple pie comes second nature to me, but adding in some almond butter took it in a new direction!

Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
refrigration of crust 31 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Author foxpineshomestead

Ingredients

Spelt crust

  • 1 cup white flour
  • 1 cup spelt flour plus more for dusting
  • 1/2 cup butter (one sitck)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp lard
  • 1/2 cup cold water

pie filling

  • 6 apples, peeled and cored, sliced thinly
  • 1/4 cup spelt flour plus more for dusting the counter
  • 1 lemon
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup sugar (I prefer cane sugar - it adds a bit of caramel flavor)
  • 4 tbsp butter
  • 1/2 cup almond butter, melt about 30 seconds in a microwave

Instructions

Crust

  1. Whisk the flours and salt together, and place in a food processor. cut up the butter by tablespoons and drop in, along with the lard.  Whir up a few pulses until butter and lard are cut in.  Leave pieces teh size of peas or a bit larger.

  2. Add about 1/4 cup of water and pulse to start to form the dough.  Add more water as needed until the crust dough comes together.  Spelt flour absorbs a lot more water than plain white flour, so it will be more than you might be used to.

  3. As soon as it starts to come together, dump out on a floured surface and knead together, then cut into 2 pieces.  Do not handle roughly, and as minimally as possible.  Wrap in plastic wrap and put in the fridge to cool, at least 30 minutes, but up to a day in advance.  This allows the flour to absorb all the moisture, and for the butter knobs left in it to harden.  Flaky crusts are created when the moisture in the pieces of butter turn to steam during baking - and create the flaky texture.

Apple filling

  1. Put all the sliced apple in a very large bowl, and sprinkle over the flour, sugar, and salt.  Squeeze the lemon over and around the bowl to distribute the lemon juice - it keeps the apples from browning and adds flavor.  Feel free to zest the lemon first over the apples.

  2. Give the apple mix a good stir.

Putting it together

  1. Roll out one half of the dough a bit larger than your pie plate.  Spray the plate with nonstick spray (it helps get our that perfect piece of pie!), and lay the rolled dough into the plate.

  2. Fill with the apple mix.  Dot over the 4 tbsp of butter, which will mix with the flour to help thicken the juices from the apples as it cooks.

  3. Drizzle the melted almond butter all over the top.

  4. Roll out the top piece of dough, place on top of the pie and crimp the edges. Be sure to make some slits in the middle for steam to escape.  If you like, use an egg wash on the top crust.  I prefer to do what my Mom always did - just a sprinkle of white sugar, which will turn a bit crunchy.

  5. Bake 350F for 1 hour, or until the crust has browned lightly, and you may see some bubbly juices through the slits of the top crust.  I like to put a tray on the shlf underneath the pie in the oven to catch any drips that can occur with pies!

  6. If desired, melt some more almond butter, and mix with a bit of cream to make a lovely sauce as a topping.

Recipe Notes

Be sure to leave bits of butter visible in the crust when mixing to ensure it's flaky.

Use a mix of apple varieties for the best tasting pie.  I like Honey crisps, Cortland's and even Macintosh.  We prefer to have the apples bake really soft and melt down, vs. having slices you can still see with a bit of crunch.