Deep Dish Apple Pie

I am so excited to be sharing this recipe with you!
My husband and I perfected it this year, and my oh my is it good.
What makes it so good? The compote!
Sugary, sweet, and thick sauce that smothers your apples and bakes that pie to perfection.

The second best part? The crust!
We wanted to keep it whole wheat but this time we used white whole wheat flour which truly made all the difference.

I hope you enjoy!
Adapted by Eatingwell.com and Inside BruCrew Life

Ingredients: 
Crust

2 1/2 cups white whole flour
2 tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
3 tbs canola oil
4tbs butter, unsalted, cubed
1/4cup cold water
Compote
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup white sugar
1/4 cornstarch
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
2cups water
Filling
5 cups apples, cubed
1tbs lemon juice
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Directions: 
Start with the crust:  In a large bowl, whisk flour, salt, and sugar together. With pastry blender or hands mix in cubed butter until dough starts to become crumbly.  Then, fold in Greek yogurt and slowly pour cold water in as your are kneading the dough together. Turn out the dough and knead on a lightly floured surface until dough is just holding together. Divide dough in half and shape into 5inch wide disks. Wrap the disks in plastic wrap and refrigerate for and hour.
Filling: Peel and chop up the apples to small cubes. Fold in lemon juice and cinnamon and set aside.
Compote: Add sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and water to a small pot. Bring to a boil, and let boil for 2min, constantly stirring.Fold in apple mixture, reduce heat to medium low and let simmer covered for 10-12min. Remove from heat.

Preheat oven 425 degrees F. Place a baking rack on the bottom shelf.

Let refrigerated dough sit out for 5min to get to room temperature. Place  parchment paper over disks and roll each out to ~13inch. Carefully lay one rolled-out dough into a 9 1/2-10inch pie pan. Trim over hanging edges. Evenly add apple compote mixture and then carefully lay the other rolled-out dough on top and gently tuck top dough into bottom. You can then make or pinch any pie decorations  would like. Add at least 4 holes or slices to the top of the dough for ventilation.

*Optional:Whisk an egg white with 1/4 tsp cinnamon together and glaze top of dough for a shinny finish.

Bake pie at 425 for 20 min (you may want to cover with aluminum foil to keep the top from browning too much). Then reduce heat to 375 degrees and bake for another 20-30min until top is a light golden brown (remove aluminum foil during this stage).

 Let cool for 20 min.

ENJOY!!!!

Mini Deep Dish Apple Pie

       We were out to dinner and finishing up our delicious main course when the waiter graciously, but of course conceived well before we even received our drink orders, asked if we would like to try their apple pie or chocolate molten cake for dessert.

            Now my husband and I hardly, and I mean, it better be our wedding anniversary or a new decade birthday do we get dessert at a restaurant, but both of us looked at each other with eyes yearning for some apple pie...but of course we said no thank you.

              But a craving doesn't get away that easy with this foodie, so as soon as the waiter whisked away our dishes in order to bring us our check I said, don't worry honey I'll make some apple pie!

And thus these beauties.

Simple, single serving, deep dish apple pies. Just the right amount smother that craving with sweet, cinnamony apple bliss.

Ingredients
Dough
1 cup-whole wheat pastry flour
1tbs cold butter, diced
1tbs white sugar
1/2 tsp vinegar
1/4 tsp salt
4 tbs cold water

Filling
2 small granny smith apples (mine were really small 1 large will probably work), diced
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1tbs sugar
drop of vanilla

egg white, for wash (or milk)

4 (half cup ramekins)

Directions:
Lightly spray the inside of ramekins with cooking spray, set aside.

Mix together the flour, salt and sugar. Cut in diced butter with a pastry blender or two forks until mixture looks a little crumbly. Add in 1tbs of cold water and a time and fold mixture over itself to form a dough. The dough should be slightly wet, and completely sticking to itself. 

Place dough on a well floured surface and kneed together 10-15 times, then let rest for 5-10 min. 


Meanwhile, dice apple(s) into small bite size pieces and then toss apple pieces, cinnamon, sugar, and vanilla in a bowl, set aside. 
Preheat oven to 350 F.

Now take the rested dough and divided into 8 equal balls. 
(I rolled my dough into a ball, and then cut it in half, and then cut that half in half, and so on so forth).

Gently begin forming the balls of dough into small disks by either gently pressing them down with your  palm or rotating them between your thumb and index finger.

Then gently roll out into a thin, flat disk then place and press them to the inside of prepped ramekin--it's okay if the dough sides spill over the edges.

Repeat with the remaining dough balls, pressing three more into the bottoms of the ramekins and saving the other four to top the mini pies with.

Take your prepped mixture and evenly distribute the mixture into each of the ramekins. 
Then take the rolled out dough and lay them over the top of the ramekins. Gently press and or pinch the sides of the dough to the ramekin to enclose the pie. 

Decorate the tops of the dough with slits to release the steam. Then gently brush the tops with egg whites or milk.

Place mini pies on a baking sheet, and bake for 30 min, until tops have a nice golden color. 

Remove and let cool for 10 min. 

ENJOY!!!

Question: What's your favorite kind of pie?

Homemade Apple Fritters

These are not healthy, but they sure were a treat!

I am a HUGE advocate for allowing all foods into one's diet, even the bad stuff as long as it's in moderation. 

Fats are good for us, 

we just have to be careful how much and what kind.

So just relax, have a few fritters, and enjoy your day!

To be honest I was nervous when it came to the frying part. A sauce pan full of REALLY REALLY hot oil just seemed like an accident waiting to happen. BUT it was SUPER EASY. 

So get your breakfast on  in sweet way

Adapted from seeminglygreek.com
Ingredients:

Fritters
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 white flour (you can use 1 heaping cup all white flour)
1/3 sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 tbs butter, melted
1 egg
1/3 cup milk of choice
1-1/2 cup chopped apples-peanut size

oil for frying....about 3-4 inches in a 2 quart sauce pan (You can recycle the leftover oil afterward by placing it in an empty jar)

Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1tbs milk + more if you want it thinner.

Directions:

Option 1) The Original
Mix flour, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg in a small bowl. Whisk egg, vanilla, sugar, milk, and melted butter in another small bowl. Blend dry into wet. 
Gently fold in apples. 

Option 2) What I did...however it made them runny and i should have left out the milk but was able to fix the problem later..read on!

The night before, blend apple pieces, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl and let sit overnight in the fridge. It will sweeten and juice up--the cause the runny part--but tastes DELICIOUS!
Blend the dry ingredients as above and then fold in the apple mix. Like I said you should probably leave out the milk, because the apple juice created was more than enough liquid. 

Heat 3-4 inches of canola oil in a small sauce pan on medium to medium-high heat

THE AWESOME FRY-READY TEST:
To test if oil is ready for frying, take a small drop of the fritter mixture and plop it in the oil if it bubbles and floats to the top the oil is ready! If it sinks its not hot enough, if it burns its too hot so reduce heat. 


Scoop out golf ball sized dough and plop them in the oil, I used an ice cream scoop and just plopped them in, this created some odd shapes sometimes but still worked. 
let them cook about 35-60 sec each side, or until the dough is nice and golden all around. (mine took awhile longer, I believe because of the wheat flour and the runnyness of the dough)

Remove from oil with tongs and dry on a paper towel to catch oil.
Once warm enough to handle submerge in glace and place on a plate to cool--glaze will harden. 

SUCCESS!

Now....if you run into the problem of having wonderfully outside cooked fritters but when you cut them open and you notice the inside is not fully cooked--my problem with the runny dough--, HAVE NO FEAR. Just turn your oven to 350 degrees and bake for 10-13 min. Even if you've glazed them-- I did--the glaze won't melt and you'll have crunchy, yummy, fully cooked fritters. 

ENJOY!!!!

Single Serving Apple Crisp

Have a microwave?

Have 60 sec?

Want an EASY dessert?

Make this!  

Ingredients:

• 1 small apple

• 2 tbs brown sugar

• 2 tbs oats

• 1  tbs flour

• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon

• 1 tbs butter (I used apple sauce!)  

 

Directions:
 Dice apple into small pieces and place in a small bowl. Mix 1 tbs of brown sugar and 1/2 tbs flour and 1/8 of cinnamon with apples. 
Mix oats, 1/8 cinnamon, butter (or apple sauce), rest of flour and brown sugar in another small bowl. Place apple mixture in a small baking dish and top with oat mixture.
Place in microwave for 60 sec. (all microwaves are different so adjust accordingly) 

*Note: I split this mixture between two small ramekins so I could share with my husband...but feel free to eat it all, no judgment here. 

 
Top with a dollop of vanilla ice cream. 

Enjoy!!!! 

you could trying baking it too: @325 5-10 min!