The mist is covering the Finnish countryside this morning, surrounding our apple trees loaded with ripe fruits. I am sipping a hot cup of green tea, watching the nature outside and enjoying that peaceful feeling, so unique to our Finnish cottage. We picked kilos of apples yesterday and I baked this simple but oh so flavorful apple pie. Sometimes less is more.
End of summer is apple picking time. Our cottage apple variety is called ‘cinnamon apple’ in Finnish, or kaneliomena, a crisp and juicy red apple, with slightly pink flesh. The name is well deserved, which is why I chose not to add any cinnamon spices to my pie.
My apple filling is a no brainer – just peel and spread the apple slices on a gluten free pie crust, beat an egg with fresh cream and coconut sugar, pour on the apples, dust some more coconut sugar and straight to the oven.
Often, basic pâte brisée pie crust hardens too much in the oven, so I opted for a dough containing regular cream and olive oil, that together add extra moelleux or softness to the crust.
I don’t usually go for ready mixes of gluten free flour, (often too starchy or containing xanthan gum). However our small nearby supermarket run out of organic brown rice flour, a basic in my homemade flour mix. Hence for once, I picked an all-purpose gluten free flour, composed of brown rice flour, GMO-free starch flour, buckwheat and psyllium.
There is nothing better that a good apple pie, with apples fresh off the tree. Especially after climbing a four meter high ladder, tiptoeing on the very top to reach that apple just beyond my grasp, calling to be picked… Let’s bake!
- For the dough (pâte brisée):
- 5 cl cold cream
- 220 g all-purpose gluten free flour
- 4 cl olive oil
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp coconut sugar
- For the filling:
- About 6 small apples, peeled and sliced
- 1 egg
- 1,5 dl cream
- 1 tbsp coconut sugar + 1 tbsp to sprinkle
- Mix the flour, the oil, the cream and the salt by hand or in your stand mixer. Incorporate 10 cl of cold water little by little, until the dough is homogeneous. (it should be slightly sticky to be easy to spread).
- Keep in refrigerator for an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 185 degrees.
- Spread the dough in a pie pan lined with parchment paper.
- Fill with the slices of apples.
- Beat the egg, add 1,5 dl of cream and the tablespoon of coconut sugar.
- Bake for about 30 minutes.
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