Apple Pie with Maple Sugar

Apple pie is a favorite any time of the year at my house, but especially during the fall when fresh apples are in season. We have a couple of eating apple trees between the sugarhouse and our home that we eat fresh and harvest for pies and sauce. Macintosh and Cortland are the varieties I like the best, however you can use wild or cider apples as well. There are many apple varieties to choose from, its all about your personal preference. Just be sure to taste them first and adjust your sugar and spices to accommodate the apple flavors as not all apples are the same.

Best Pie Crust

Some day I will write a recipe for my favorite pie crust.  I learned it from my husband's Ma tante Héléne who lived in Montreal. She and her sister had taken a cooking class and this was the crust they learned to make. Every holiday as the family gathered around the table there was a festive fight of teasing over who would get a piece of her pies. I always believed that her crust was what made her pie so desirable.

If you don't have a favorite crust that you make, there are plenty of store bought crusts. The baking pros at Taste of Home wrote an informative article on premade pie crusts based on appearance, aroma, texture and flavor.

Mixing together the dry ingredients

Did you know that you have options to sweeten an apple pie beyond using refined sugar? Maple sugar, which is maple syrup that we continue to evaporate until all the moisture is gone, is a perfect alternative to using white sugar.

Most apple pie recipes call for white sugar or a combination of white sugar and brown sugar. I simply use a cup of maple sugar. Maple and apples go together marvelously. Add the flour and spices to the sugar and use a fork or pastry cutter to mix them together and eliminating any lumps.

Putting it all together

Roll out your pie crust and then seat your apples so that they are not heaped up in the middle. Then, using about a half tablespoon of butter, cut it up in little pieces and drop the butter pads around your apple pie. This will help to prevent the juices from boiling over during baking.

Add the top crust and crimp the edges together. Be sure to seal them well to help keep all the juices in the pie plate and off of the bottom of the oven. Be sure to make the slits for the steam in the middle.

Ingredients:

5 to 6 large pie apples, sliced 1/4" thick.

• 2 pie crusts
• 1 cup maple sugar
• 2 Tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. Rinse and peel the apples. Quarter and remove the cores. Slice thinly.

3. Mix the spices and flour together. Toss with the apples.

4. Prepare the bottom pie crust and plate. Add the apple mixture.

5. Dot the top of the apples with the butter.

6.  Apply the top crust.

7. Bake for 30 minutes at 400 degrees.

8. Lower oven temperature to 375, bake 25 minutes. Check often and cover with foil if the pie crust starts looking dark. The pie is done when the crust is brown and the vents are steaming.

9. Cool on a wire rack.