Gluten-Free Dutch Apple Pie

It's September, the kids (who aren't all "kids" at all) are all in back in school ~ high school and college, now, but school, nonetheless ~ and so, it is staring to feel like Fall...in my mind.  But only in my mind.  In the rest of SoCal it feels like the inside of an oven.  Nevertheless, the stores are hawking Halloween decorations, and pumpkin-spice-flavoured everything, and I am buying it all ~ hook, line and sinker.  I mean, not LITERALLY buying it.  Just, like, I'm buying it...ya know?  At any rate, I was feeling like baking pies, and so I settled on one pumpkin and one apple.  It occurred to me that Justice is not eating gluten, but she does love pie, so if I was going to make two pies, I was going to have to make some adjustments.  The pumpkin was easy enough, as the only gluten occurred in the crust; but since my favourite apple pie recipe not only has a filling thickened with flour, but is topped with a crumb topping, making it gluten-free was going to be a bit of a challenge.  I decided to give it a shot.  We all thought it was quite good ~ Shane didn't even know it was gluten-free when he commented on how much he liked it ~  so I thought I would share the recipe.

Gluten-Free Dutch Apple Pie

Ingredients:

1 gluten-free pie crust*

FILLING:

6 large, firm apples, peeled, cored & sliced (see notes)

½ cup granulated sugar

3 TBS cornstarch

¼ tsp. ground cinnamon

1 TBS lemon juice

dash of salt

TOPPING:

½ cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

½ cup Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1to1 Baking Flour

½ cup almond flour (see notes)

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

¼ tsp cinnamon (optional)

dash of salt

1 TBS granulated sugar

*If you have a recipe you love for gluten-free piecrust, and you want to make it, that’s fantastic.  Mine have been tragic failures, so I bought a package of two at Whole foods.  They contain butter, which isn’t my best friend (dairy allergy), but I can tolerate a little bit, and I am putting it in this pie, anyway, so, what the heck.  Everyone else will definitely appreciate a piecrust that is not a tragic failure.  (Also, if you could share that piecrust recipe, I would be much obliged.)

NOTES:

1) Historically, Granny Smith have been the preferred “baking apple,” because of their tartness, and texture.  However, I have cooked all kinds of apples, and the results have usually been fine.  Arguably, some apples might be better for cooking than others, but, if I have apples lying around that are going to be baked, or thrown in the garbage (because we can’t eat that many in a day, not because they’re rotten or anything), I’ll probably bake them. 

2) I used a mixture of Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1to1 Baking Flour and almond flour in my pie, because we all like the flavour of almond meal, we happened to have these ingredients on hand, and no one here is allergic to them.  If you are baking for someone with a nut allergy, a simple fix would be to sub gluten-free flour for the almond flour.  Alternately, you could try subbing gluten-free oats.  I haven’t tried that, and you might have to add a little bit of flour (or more oats, I’m not sure), but I think it should work, and would taste good.

           

3) On the optional cinnamon in the topping: Some people prefer to put cinnamon only in the filling, and leave the topping more of plain sugar crumb.  I love cinnamon, so maybe I overdo it.  You do what you prefer (of course). 

4) It is very common for the filling to bubble over the edges of the pan, so it is highly recommended that you place your pie on a cookie sheet for baking, in order to catch the dripping sugar.  This will save you a lot of trouble later, when it’s time to clean. 

~ lastly, I will drop a note here that, if you cannot use cornstarch, your could sub any gluten-free thickener that works similarly, as the cornstarch was originally a sub for flour.  I’ve heard rice flour might work in instances like this (?).  If others have suggestions/experience with recipes like this, I’d love to hear from you. 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F. 

If piecrust is frozen, remove it from freezer, and allow to thaw while you work.

In a large bowl, lightly toss apple slices, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, lemon juice & salt, until all ingredients are thoroughly mixed ~ the slices should be evenly coated with sugary-cinnamony goodness.   Pour apple mixture into piecrust, pouring any extra “syrup” from the bottom of the bowl evenly over the apples.

In a medium bowl, mix flour, almond flour, brown sugar, cinnamon (if using) and salt.  Add the pieces of cold butter, and cut in using two knives or a pastry cutter ~ or just mix it all together with very clean fingers ~ until the mixture forms a nice medium-large crumb.  Sprinkle the crumb mixture over the apples in your piecrust, mounding a little higher toward the center.  Sprinkle the 1TBS granulated sugar evenly over the crumb mixture. 

Place the pie, tin and all, on a cookie sheet.  Bake for 45-55 mins, until the topping is a nice golden brown, and the filling is bubbling.  Let cool…I mean, at least for a while.  Warm apple pie is sooooo good!  It does cut more neatly when it’s cool.  But you do what you gotta do.