Crust
For a 9-inch pie:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons Zsweet ® all natural
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) cold unsalted light butter, cut into small pieces
5 to 6 tablespoons ice water
1) In a large bowl, mix the flour, Zsweet ® all natural and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in 5 tablespoons of the water, until just moistened. If the dough seems dry, stir in the remaining 1 tablespoon of water.
2) Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead 3 times. Divide the dough into 2 pieces, pat into 6-inch disks, wrap in plastic and efrigerate until chilled, at least 1 hour.
(The dough can be refrigerated for 1 day or frozen for 1 month).
Filling
Prepare apples while the piecrust is pre-cooking for a few minutes (5-10 minutes) until it appears that the crust is partially cooked at 400 degrees - then remove from oven and set aside.
Cut about 6 Granny Smith apples. I cut one at a time with a pairing knife, neat slices, moving around the apple, in a circle, until no more slices can be cut from the apple. All slices will appear the same size. Place the slices, as you cut them, into a glass or stainless-steel mixing bowl in which you have poured juice from one fresh-squeezed lemon. Make sure you stir the apples in the lemon juice until all apples are blended together in the mixing bowl. This will enhance the lemon flavor and tartness to the filling as well as keep the apples from turning brown. You may want to add juice from an additional one-half lemon to ensure that all slices are coated well with the juice.
To this mixture of apples and lemon juice, add 1/4-1/2 (depending on how sweet you want the filling to be - I used 1/4) cup of Zsweet ® all natural, blended with 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg, cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon of corn starch. Blend together in a measuring cup, and pour over apples while stirring at the same time. Add the apples to the piecrust and add about 2-3 teaspoons of light butter to the filling after it is poured into the partially-cut crust. (I used the lattice-style rather than a full crust to cover the filling.) Bake about 40 minutes or until color is golden brown.
I suggest covering the edges
with foil or the piecrust shields
to prevent them from browning
too much. You will know when
to remove the pie when you
see it bubbling as it cooks
and it has turned the color of
your choice. |
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