Honey Apple Pie

I visited a farmers market recently and all I ended up getting were some apples. Normally the farmers markets have a good selection of produce, but it was still early in the season and we had a pretty cool spring here in Washington State, so a lot of produce was later than expected. Apples are almost always available, since they are such a big crop here in the state. I picked up a bunch of apples, a couple of different varieties, and figured I could make something.

My husband and I both really like honey, and he came across this recipe for honey apple pie. I had a frozen pie shell in the freezer so I ended up using that. If you’d like to make your own pastry, you can. I was just trying to use up some ingredients before they got too old. The original recipe called for puff pastry, more of a free-form pie. We had a couple of different types of honey, and I think I ended up using blackberry honey. It sounds fairly exotic, but it just has a subtly different flavor.

I really liked the honey in the pie. It was a nice addition, you could taste the honey but it wasn’t the primary flavor. I think that the apple filling had too much cinnamon, so I would definitely reduce that, maybe to two teaspoons. I love the crumb topping, which isn’t all that shocking since one of my favorite desserts is apple crisp. This in many ways is apple crisp in a pie shell (with some added honey), which I like a lot more than a double crust apple pie. If you’re looking for a slightly different take on apple pie, this is a great recipe to try.

Pastry for a 9 inch one crust pie

8 to 9 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced 1/4-inch thick

2 Tbsp all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

¼ cup butter, melted and cooled to room temperature

½ cup honey

1 cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup granulated sugar

½ cup packed brown sugar

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

½ tsp salt

½ cup cold butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a 9 inch pie pan with pastry. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Toss sliced apples in flour mixture. Drizzle with melted margarine or butter, and then honey. Toss again. Let rest while you make the topping.

Whisk together flour, white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Place flour mixture into the bowl of a food processor. Add the cold margarine or butter cubes. Pulse until mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs.

Toss the apple mixture again, and then put the apple mixture into the unbaked pastry shell. Sprinkle with the streusel topping mixture. Bake about 1 hour or until apples are tender. Cover topping with foil the last ten minutes of baking if it is browning too quickly. Serve warm.

Recipe adapted from http://homecooking.about.com/od/dessertrecipes/r/blpie44.htm