Friday, February 6, 2009

Crustless Apple Pie

I've made a lot of different kinds of apple pie over the past few years, and this one is by far the fastest, easiest and tastiest. It's a shame it's not more elegant, but I always get over its less-than-beautiful appearance the minute people start eating it and the chorus of "mmmmm!" begins. At least two friends have told me that they love this though they hate apple pie in general, so there must be something to it. It's like a bed of sweetened apples with a snickerdoodle on top. Can't beat that!

The recipe is from the grandmother of an old friend of mine. I have since received this exact recipe from two other people, and all three originated in western Massachusetts. If anyone knows why every western-Mass grandma has the same apple pie recipe, please let me know.

Tip: If you don't let the butter cool after melting, your pie will be dripping with butter in a bad way. Yes, there is a bad way.

Crustless Apple Pie

prep time about 15 minutes, bake time 45 minutes.

5 or 6 apples, cut into wedges about 1/4" thick
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp sugar
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350ยบ.
Lay the sliced apples in the pie pan - it should be about 2/3 to 3/4 full. Sprinkle the tablespoons of cinnamon and sugar on top.
In a small mixing bowl, mix the flour, sugar, butter, and salt. Pour onto the center of apples, it should spread itself out. Help it with a fork, if it's not spreading well enough to suit you.

Bake for 45 minutes or until lightly browned.

21 comments:

  1. This was so delicious! This is my new apple pie! Thanks!

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  2. This was a very delicious and easy pie. I only used about 1/2 the topping since we are dieters, substituting splenda as the sprinkle over the apples. Worked really well. It's a recipe book keeper. Thanks.

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  3. This sounds so good. I'm going to try it with almond flour so it's doesn't have many carbs.
    Thank you for sharing this.
    Terra

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  4. I bet it'll be great with almond flour! Please send me a photo?

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  5. This was amazing, instead of white sugar I did 1 cup light brown and added 1/2 tsp. vanilla with granny smith apples. Delish and easy :) I'm not good at crust and I hate those pre-made crusts with lard, since I'm a vegetarian. This is an easy, delicious alternative :)
    Thanks!

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  6. I remember making this in my very first home-ec class when I was in Junior High School! I have thought about it ever since and now....finally able to make it again! I cannot wait to top it with some Vanilla Bean Icecream and sniggle up on the couch tonight with my husband!

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  7. Mmmm~ that apple pie looks totally scrumptious, from the smooth look of the combination of apples and caramelized sugar, and the bready look of the toppings. Also, that pie looks delicious when eaten with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

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  8. This pie is great...easy way to pay back a neighbor who baked you a pie. But something different they probably have never had

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  9. Trying the recipe for thanksgiving. The flour mixture came out like cookie dough - I am baking it as a crumble. What did I do wrong?

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  10. My flour mixture came out at a cookie dough consistency too... I melted and cooled the butter!!

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  11. ok this might be a dumb question. I'm learning how to cook. Am i suppose to peel and cut wedges or keep skin on and cut apple wedges?

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  12. The crust topping is supposed to be like cookie dough, it melts in and hardens as it bakes.

    Yes, you peel the apples and cut them into wedges, http://www.wikihow.com/Slice-an-Apple

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  13. Hi -- This looks great. Maybe Western MA has a sizeable Swedish population as this looks like a Swedish Apple Pie recipe!

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  14. Hi--just wondering if anyone has tried this with gluten-free all purpose flour? Or maybe I could just try almond flour (so crazy expensive though--$11 a bag here!). Looks like a great recipe (and I also used to live in Western MA & am of Swedish descent:-).

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  15. Hi, I don't know of anyone trying it with fancy flour but I don't see any reason it wouldn't work, and I bet almond flour would make this incredibly good! You may have to compensate for the extra moisture with extra flour but go for it, and do let me know how it turned out!

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  16. Gluten free flour is not "fancy", it's for a medical condition, so a lot of people who use it have no other choice. People using almond flour for health are probably not just being "fancy" either, I'm sure they have a reason. Anyway, thanks for this great recipe, it was really good. We are a celiac household so we subbed in masa flour, and we used Earth Balance for the butter. I also left the peels on the apples for extra nutrition and fiber, and instead of cinnamon I used a combination of allspice, ginger, and nutmeg because that is what I had on hand. It came out like an apple crumble and was really good!

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  17. just-rodney.hubpages.com
    Hi I am from South Africa, I too am a do it from scratch type of cook, love the sound of your crustless pie. Will be trying it shortly.
    Thanks from Rodney if you add the just-rodney etc to your browser you will be on my Hubpages.

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  18. My mixture came out like cookie dough and didn't melt through the apples. It was too thick to pour as recipe stated. It's not possible with a cup flour, cup sugar and 1/4 cup butter for the mixture to be poured. is something missing here?

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  19. You missed that it was 3/4 c butter - not 1/4 cup.

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  20. I think the 1c of sugar and flour to be a bit too much. And the directions should be clarified to include the consistency of the topping itself is more like a crumble. That being said it was very good and I was able to use up some apples that had fallen on the floor after we had gotten home so it's a win in my book.

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