Dreams of Individual Apple (in a) Pie!

My relationship with food and what sustenance I put into my body is an ongoing process. My imagination and love for all things cooked and prepared with love and passion is vast and varied. Though my passion for food and cooking for loved ones is endless, I have restricted what I eat to only that which makes me feel good in the long and short run.
I have found that my body does much better and feels more clean when I do not eat sugar. That means all kinds of sugar. Processed, unprocessed, lactose, glucose, fructose... all of it.
Diabetes runs in my family and that is always on my mind when choosing realistic foods. My own blood sugar (and thus my energy and mood) fluctuates so much during the day when I eat anything with over a smidgen of sugar/carbohydrate indexed that for now I choose to eliminate them from my foods. Bonus- it is much easier for me to lose a few extra pounds when I only eat vegetables and proteins. Just sayin.

That being said...

I still love to drool over sugary foods.
Today I will tell you about one of my all time favorites... and I will use kindergarten style drawings to illustrate since I shan't be making this today.

Individual (whole)Apple Pie

Usually this recipe is made during Harvest when apple cider and apples are at their peak, but any day that is cold and gloomy is instantly lightened by this crowd pleaser.

What you will need-
Apples- 1/person, Braeburn, fuji, pink lady (any reddish delicious apples that aren't CRAZY huge)
Apple cider- 2-3 C/apple
Cinnamon sticks
Ground cinnamon
Butter
Brown sugar
Pie crust- 1/apple- I like to use the frozen packaged pre-made kind that is easy to unroll.
Egg white- 1
Large soup pot
Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream- totally optional, but way worth it.

What to do-
In the pot place washed apples, cinnamon sticks, and cider. Make sure that there is enough liquid that the apples are floating freely. If you need a LITTLE more liquid, add a splash of water.
Bring to a boil and reduce heat, let simmer until apples are almost fork tender. Apples should not be mushy! Just easily forked!

Remove apples from liquid and core the apple (Keep the liquid! Hot apple cider with cinnamon is delicious! Drink while waiting for the dessert to finish!)

Unroll pie crust, place cored apple in the center of said pie crust. Shove a large hunk of butter into the cored center, jam brown sugar on top of that. Seriously. Jam it in there. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Wrap the apple in pie crust by raising the dough up the sides... like wrapping a gift basket. Pinch dough at the top and cut off excess... and there should be a bunch of excess. The apple should be completely enclosed in crust.

Brush top of crust with egg white. Place in baking dish, bake at 375F until crispy brown exterior. Remove from oven, let cool for a bit. They are kind of like molten apple pie bombs so watch yer mouth.

Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream... or both... best eaten with fork and knife. Though food is best when shared, don't do it. Don't share it. They have their very own Apple in a Pie! YAY!!!


*find a creative use for the excess pie crust- like make into strips, smother in butter, sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on one side of strips, twist, place on baking sheets, bake until toasted.

Love & Baking
Xo
JSchloHard