Christmas Surprise

A little Christmas surprise arrived at my door step this past week. If you haven't noticed, I have found a new favorite past-time: apple picking. This fall I made applesauce, apple bread, dried apple slices and for the first time apple butter. Luckily I was able to borrow a nifty little tool to make the job easier. Here's where my Christmas surprise comes in: one of these nifty little tools showed up on my door step. What a wonderful surprise!! After a couple of phone calls to discover who Santa's elves were, I just had to smile. A couple of dear friends from the good ole' cowboy state were behind it all. Thank you so much - my dear friends!!!

The Pampered Chef's Apple/Peeler/Corer/Slicer makes cooking with apples go quickly, which is priceless when you have 40 lbs waiting to be turned into applesauce, apple butter, and of course some pies. To try out my new gadget, I decided to make an apple pie. Here goes!

I started out with getting the crust ready, so it had some time to chill before I rolled it out. I used 1/2 freshly ground whole wheat flour with 1/2 all-purpose flour. This recipe is an attempt of making a traditional pie a bit healthier.

Next, it's time to get the apples ready. After I peeled, cored, and sliced them I soaked them is fresh squeezed lemon juice.
Here's the apple before and...

here it is being cored, peeled, and sliced.

After the apples are ready, I mixed in the rest of the filling mixture. In place of white sugar I used sucanat and a little bit of honey. To thicken the filling I used oat flour and whole wheat flour.

Now comes rolling the dough.

The pie is ready for the oven.

Finally done! Smells wonderful!

This pie didn't last past this evening. Everyone wanted seconds...and because it was healthier, why not?

Rob even loved this pie. Poor guy has had to put up with all of my experimental "healthy" recipes. But this one is a keeper!

Healthier Apple Pie

Crust

1 cp whole wheat flour

1cp all-purpose flour

1tsp sea salt

6 tbsp butter

6tbsp organic palm shortening

(or non-hydrogenated shortening)

6-8 tbsp ice water

Cut butter and shortening into flour and salt. Mix in water until dough forms.

Chill for about 2o min. or while making the filling. Then separate into two balls.

Roll out, placing one on the bottom of your pie shell and the other on top.

Filling

5-6 tart apples

1/2 lemon (squeezed)

1/3 cp sucanat

1/4 cp honey

2 tbs oat flour

1 tbs whole wheat flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Peel, core and slice apples. Squeeze lemon over apples. Mix in rest of ingredients.

Fill pie shell. Cover with top crust. Place foil around edges and bake at 400F for 50-60 min.

During the last five minutes take the foil off so crust can turn golden brown.

Cool and enjoy!