Blue Apple Pie
I feel like I’ve just moved from an apartment to a cute little house with a backyard and a garage. There’s no landlord here. I can paint the walls whatever color I want. And upgrade the kitchen to fit my needs. Moving over to wordpress.org is a dream come true. My advice—make the switch if you haven’t already.
Since I’m doling out advice, can I also recommend making pies in ramekins? This is the best idea I almost never had. Last weekend in the middle of my site migration, I had to make the cover of What Katie Ate‘s new cookbook. Had to. It looked so dreamy. I halved the recipe like I always do (there’s just two of us to eat all this food). As I was rolling out the dough to place in a springform pan, and madly trying to film a video, I realized I didn’t have a mini springform after all. I reached for some ramekins and crossed my fingers.
It worked beautifully. So much so I’m ready to ditch my pie tins for this hi-top crust. And the apple filling? I think I like it better blue. It’s sweet, with a touch of ginger, finished off with a hit of lemon. The blueberry and the apple—two brothers from another mother—compliment each other with ease. Speaking of ease, if you’re not a pie maker, I’d recommend giving this recipe a try. There’e no edges to crimp. And the lattice is just like your childhood craft days—over, under, over, under. The crust is called a shortbread, a little different than your typical pie crust. It’s a bit more cakey with the inclusion of the self rising flour. Though, you can sub in regular flour to achieve a normal pie crust. Or you can try my favorite crust recipe here.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Make crust. Sift flours and salt together into a large bowl. Add in butter and begin to blend together with your hands until the butter is pea sized. Add in 1 tablespoon of chilled water at a time and mix together until dough holds together. Cover and chill for 30 minutes.
- Make filling. Add apple slices, half of the blueberries, water, sugar, lemon zest, and ginger to a small sauce pan. Cook on medium high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook for another 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Strain fruit over a fine mesh sieve, reserving the leftover fruit juice for later.
- Assemble pie. Preheat oven to 400°. Separate dough into thirds. Roll out 2 disks. Place in ramekin making sure crust reaches to the top of the ramekin. Place parchment paper in each ramekin and fill with pie weights or beans. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and discard pie weights. Add crumbled ginger cookies to the bottom of each pie. Divide fruit equally and top with remaining blueberries. Roll out final disk of dough. Cut into thin strips and create a lattice crust, trimming off extras. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with turbinado. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden and bubbly. Allow to cool.
- Make syrup. Heat remaining fruit juice and lemon juice on medium-high until until reduced. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
- Serve. Remove pies from ramekins. Top with fruit syrup and heavy cream.
Notes
• No self-rising flour? Add a heaping 1/4 tsp. of baking powder and an extra dash of salt.
Recipe adapted from the cookbook What Katie Ate.
PS—check out my post over at Mint.
Pie has always been my nemesis. Maybe with this crust I can have some success. Beautiful images.
Mini pies? Why didn’t I think of that! I too just got my hands on What Katie Ate’s cookbook and I’m slowly making my way through it. GLORIOUS isn’t it!?
I made mini apple pies yesterday – but an even smaller version, in a muffin tin!
I absolutely LOVE the look of these! Holy cow, I need to make pies in ramekins immediately!
This looks so lovely! What a pretty pie
Pie in a ramekin?! Such a good idea. I never have the right tin for a pie but I definitely have plenty of ramekins. I want to go home and make a pie right now!
When we switched from Blogger to WordPress, we felt the same way – shiny new home! Everything is so much prettier! Anyways, these little pies are wonderful! I often halve recipes since it’s just the two of us, too, but I usually don’t do it with dessert. Ramekin pies are the perfect solution!
Your new home here is beautiful and these pies are too cute!
Love the site! I’ve been wanting to make the move and now you’ve convinced me! Love, love the little pies. So darn cute!
again, gorgeous photos and a great idea for all those apples we’ve been picking. but I really need to thank you for the ziplist integration! how cool is that?? wordpress.org rocks.
I love wordpress–it’s so easy to use even if you’re not exactly a computer person (ahem like me). I’ve made hand pies before but I think the presentation is a lot more elegant in the ramekins especially with that latice crust. One word: YUM!
This looks delicious!
ps gorgeous photos.