During our curtain hanging process a couple of weeks ago, we discovered a treasure hidden in a box, at the far corner of the balcony. It is not money, jewelry or an expensive artifact of any type. But the long road my husband travels to buy these delicious honey crisp apples is priceless. I was shocked that I forgot about their existence in our house. Surprisingly, honey crisp apples hold up pretty well, for up to 5 months, if stored properly.
I decided to make this pie, knowing how much my family would appreciate it. What I like the most about this particular recipe, is the the variety of ingredients, which keep the pie interesting and way far from being boring. See it for yourself. The pie came out heavenly! Next stop is most likely Apple Cider :)
Ingredients:
- 4 oz of dried fruit of your choice. I mix raisins, dried apricots and dried cranberries
- 1 cup of water
- 1 cup of all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 4 medium apples
- 4-5 strawberries (optional)
- 4 eggs
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 8 Tbsp unsalted butter melted
- pinch of cinnamon
- 1/2 cup of shopped walnuts divided in half
- cooking spray or little butter to grease the spring form pan
Directions:
Pre-heat oven at 360 F.
In a small bowl mix the dried fruit with water. Close the lid of the bowl (or simply cover it with microwave safe plate) and microwave it for 2 minutes. Once ready, set aside until further use.
Sift the flour together with the baking powder and set aside until needed.
Peel the apples and cut them in thin slices. If you are using strawberries cut them up thinly, too. Place them in a little bowl and set aside.
Whisk together eggs, pinch of salt and light brown sugar, until the mixture is lighter.
Add the melted butter, cinnamon and whisk until everything is mixed. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. With a spatula gently stir everything together, just until incorporated.
Once well-incorporated, mix in half of the chopped walnuts along with the cut fruits. Grease the sides and the bottom of the 9″ spring roll pan using baking spray or butter.
Place the ready mixture in the pan. Drain the water from under the dried fruit and place them randomly on top of the pie. Sprinkle remaining walnuts on top of the pie and place the pan on the middle rack of the oven.
Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the readiness of the pie. Once time is up, take the spring pan out of the oven, let it cool for 10-15 minutes before un-molding the pie. Cool it further on the wire rack.
You can serve it warm or cold. Voila!
Bon Apettit!
I am in awe. How much time does it take to photograph each step of a recipe like that? Gorgeous photos.
Wizzy :) thank you for visiting my blog! I checked out your blog, too. The pictures you have there are amazing!!! It is an honor to know that you find my pictures worth liking :)
It takes sometime to get used to shooting the images while you cook. Once you get the hang of it, it is a breeze :)
GORGEOUS…I just held my breath till I reached the end of your beautiful post!!
I love fruit in bakes, and I fell in love with the picture at Tastespotting!
Thank you, Deeba! You are such a sweetheart :) I hope you like the recipe as much as we did. Thank you for visiting my blog.
This looks amazing. I can feel the smell of it and it makes me want to go home and make me some.
Oh, yeah! The smells is going to fill your kitchen (of not the whole house) for sure :)
I just discovered this blog via Tastespotting… wonderful recipe (I love nearly anything with apple in it) and beautiful photos. I’ll be visiting often, no doubt. Cariños!
Miriam, thank you very much for a delightful comment. As long as amazing woman like you keep visiting, I can keep on adding more recipes! :) Thank you very much! I will be visiting your blog, too!
This looks lovely, thanks for all the tasty pics!! I can’t wait to try it this weekend :) Just to clarify though … 1/2 tbsp baking powder and 1/2 cup light brown sugar?
Oh, my bad! I forgot to type in the measurements :( I fixed it and it should be 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 cup light brown sugar :) Thank you for pointing that out!!!!
This is so incredibly unique. And I’ve got a bunch of apples that muuuust be used. One question, how ‘eggy’ is this? Thank you for posting such a creative twist on favorite flavors!
Oh, Jen! I am soo sorry that I am getting back to you a little late. I hope I can still be helpful.
It is not eggy at all. If you do not like eggs much, cut it to 3 eggs instead of 4. That’s should help a little.
No worries! I ended up being too tired to bake last night any way. I appreciate the input and I’ll let you know how it works. :)
Jenn, I have three more apple pie recipes and they are all divine. I will drop you a line as soon I am done documenting them.
Oh, one more thing about the recipe above: instead of soaking dried fruit in water, soak the fruits in juice. If you have apple juice, it will taste very good. I am going to edit the recipe and add it there in a bit.
This turned out splendidly! And superbly! Thank you, thank you. I had run into the same problem as you–apples leftover from a giant apple purchase back in the fall. I, too, am shocked they survived so long. We’d had all too many apple pies and there is apple pie filling in the freezer…but I needed some way to use the last several apples. And now I wish it were apple season all over again! I took your suggestion of using 3 eggs; also used 1 1/8 cups gluten-free flour mix, and 1/3 cup canola oil (im off dairy right now). It is great with maple syrup, too :) A wonderful pancake/pie/cake/bread pudding dessert. Well done!
Oh, wow! I am so glad that it worked out well :) How did the canola oil work in the pie? I am very curious of that! I need to try it out sometime. I am also thinking of coming up with gluten free subs of the recipes. I also have a lot of friends who consume gluten-free products.
Jenn, why are you off dairy? Are you on a special diet? The reason why I am asking you is that I am on a strict diet, too. But I allow myself cheat snacks once in a while :)
By the way! I just marinated one of the world’s most amazing Teriyaki chicken. I hope you like Teriyaki chicken. This one is going to be your favorite :D
Finally replying :) Yep, special diet. Gluten and dairy-free. I recently went off dairy, and have since felt better, so I’m not sure I’ll return. The canola oil worked surprisingly well. I’ve been learning much about substitutions recently :)
I bought a couple more apples today since the stores are still teeming with the fall harvest. I just want more of this apple cake!!
Being Gluten free is healthy! I wish I could do it, too. If you think about it, dairy is such a complex substance, it does more harm to a human body rather than helping it. Unfortunately, sometimes it is hard to substitute them with other products, especially in baking department.
How about swapping the butter with organic vegetable shortening? Shortenings are mainly made with canola oil and cotton seed oil (to come to think about it, canola oil is partially cotton seed oil). I hear it works great in a lot of pastries. I have only tried it in meat pies. The results are not bad! I am thinking of using it in Baklava next week. I will let you know how it turns out.
Oooooo I am dying to know how the baklava works with the shortening. I’m sure shortening would work well with the apple cake, too!
I actually haven’t been happy with the pie crusts I’ve made with organic shortening…they seem tougher than when I used to make them with butter. So I am curious about your pastry recipes because maybe I’m just not using enough shortening, he!
Baklava is essentially made with shortening (the Turkish one, I can’t speak for other kitchens). But the shortening they use in Turkey is much different than the one we have here. Turkish version is mixed with animal fat, too. Hence, their baklava has a distinctive taste. Trust me, it is very far from unpleasing :)
I agree with the pie crust. I tried organic shortening recently on one of my meat pies. It didn’t work as well as butter did. It might be that we are using organic shortening :) Maybe not so organic ones will work better. I have seen my friends using it, and their crusts come out heavenly.
This looks absolutely delicious-all my favorite fruits in fabulous-looking pie! Can’t wait to try this out :)
Oh, thank you Megan! Let me know how it turns out!! :)
tried it and loved it. My dried appricots and raisins were from back home, nice and sweet ones :D. And instead of a dried cranberry, I added some Saudi dates (unmicrowaved as they are already so soft, just unstoned them and chopped them half)
Put all the other apple pie recipes you know, we shall try them too. Like I said, apple pie is my favorite :)
I am so glad you liked it!!! YaY!! Let me work on the rest of the recipes and I will def. let you know :)
Just done baking it. Doesn’t look quite as gorgeous as yours, but will wait for the kids to come home from school and try it. I had so much FUN making it! Thank you!
Thank you for not being afraid to make it!!!!! I hope your family enjoyed it!
Kisses and hugs
Yummy this looks perfect & beautiful. I will definitely try it soon :)
Cherine, thank you very much :) I hope you will like it!
Лола,здравствуйте!А можно узнать,почему вас нет на сайте Пикслэнда и ваих фото тоже…
Здравствуйте Фархад! Рада, что вы зашли к нам :) В Пиксланд я перестала заходить потому, что там проводила слишком много времени. Pешила больше уделять время семье и своему блогу :)
Thanks! My family love it!
I love your recipes and the beautiful pictures for every steps. I just baked this cake and it was wonderful and my husband loved it. Please put up more recipes, your work is great. :)