Easy Recipe – Homemade Crustless Apple Pie
In your quest to get healthy and lose weight — you need to learn how to appreciate food, to take pleasure in it, and start eating REAL foods (instead of the fake stuff we’re constantly told is ‘good for us’ when in reality it’s not).
Yet a challenge people often come across is finding recipes that are easy, healthy AND taste good.
I recently found a blog How to Cook Like Your Grandmother, by Drew Kime, which does just that (Drew is also author of a cookbook by the same name).
Drew is all about making food that tastes good and is healthy, by using real wholesome ingredients. As Drew makes cooking so easy, I invited him to share one of his recipes, which you’ll see below.
Be sure to also check out Drew’s 10-day online course in the basics of cooking, “Starting From Scratch” which is completely FREE!
So enjoy the recipe. Trust me, it’s quick, easy, and much healthier and better for you than anything you could buy at the store.
Bon appétit!
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Homemade Crustless Apple Pie
Though I’ll admit to a weakness for a nice crumb topping, I’m not actually that much a fan of pie crust. To me it’s just something to hold the filling together. Something you have to deal with if you’re going to have apple pie.
Except … you don’t. I’ve had versions of this dish that were obviously out of a jar. Probably full or corn syrup and preservatives. It would have made a great topping for a banana split when I was 8, but that’s about the best I can say about it.
And the “whipped cream” … don’t even get me started on that thin, watery, artificial mess. I don’t even want to think about it, much less describe it.
Which is why I knew I had to make this when Dinneen asked me to write this post for her blog. I could show how easy it is to make from scratch. And hopefully convince you how much better it tastes when you use real food.
Ingredients
4 large apples
2 tablespoons rendered bacon fat (or butter)
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 – 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Topping
whipped cream
– or –
vanilla ice cream
Directions
If you’re making this for kids, you’ll probably want to peel the apples. I prefer the texture from the peel, and the color looks much better. Either way, cut them into eighths and cut out the stem and seeds.
Now you can ask the question you’ve been thinking since you read the ingredients: Bacon fat? Yes, bacon fat. Butter works, but it scorches easily. If you use butter, add about a half-teaspoon of salt with the sugar. Melt the fat over medium heat in a non-stick pan.
Once the fat is melted, carefully lay in enough apples to cover the bottom of the pan, then pour in the rest. (You want to do the a layer first so the fat doesn’t splatter when you dump it all in.) Then stir or toss the apples to coat them all evenly.
Add about a half teaspoon of cinnamon — just enough for a light dusting over all the apples — plus a tablespoon of sugar, and give it another stir.
Put a lid on, turn the heat down very low, and leave it covered for about 15 minutes. Stir once halfway through.
Check to see that they’re fork tender. (Make sure you let all the steam from the bottom of the lid run back into the pan. You’ll need that liquid later.) If they’re still crunchy in the middle, simmer for another five minutes at a time until they’re soft all the way through. Then taste. Add more cinnamon if it needs it.
Now add another tablespoon of sugar and stir. With the liquid that has come out of the apples, plus the sugar you just added, you’ve got the makings of a nice syrup. Leave the lid off, turn the heat up to medium, and stir constantly as the liquid thickens up. Don’t leave it alone, it can burn very easily.
Arrange a single layer of apples in a plate. Add a scoop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Spoon a little bit of the syrup over the top.
And that’s it. Four ingredients — plus a topping — and better than any candy-sweet mush you’ll get in a jar.
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For over 200 more recipes that would have looked at home on your grandmother’s table — including directions for making your own whipped cream (it’s easier than you think) — check out How To Cook Like Your Grandmother.
By the time I finished reading the recipe, I was ready to pull up a chair for my serving!
I know your blog is for women, so I left of any indication what my last name would be, because my guy friends would have a field day if they knew I was posting here. What really impressed me was the directions even told me what to do with the liquid on the underside of the lid! Do you know how many times I’ve pulled a lid off the pan and placed it over there, only to have all that liquid fall to the floor?
Thank you for a delicious recipe. Now, I just need to know where to show up, and when. I’m ready for desert!
I love love love this Dinneen and Drew! My doctor “took me off of” things with flour so I’ve been avoiding some of the more yummy things that were formerly in my world. I always get excited when I see people presenting alternatives … THANK YOU! I’ll check out Drew’s site. You two rock!
This recipe reminds me of my grandmother, she was from Normandy.
It sounds great and I can smell the warm apples from here, I’ll definitely try it.
I am just cautious about the bacon fat, so I think I’ll stick with the butter.
For the whipped cream, my grandma used to do it by hand (yes, by hand!) but she always used an ice bath or a chilled bowl.
This recipe sound so yummy, where is the next one?
OM goodness. This sounds heavenly. I think I feel 10 pounds on my hips just reading this. Guess I’ll have to try it for dessert tomorrow. Thanks for the recipe!
I’m going to have to give this a try with the bacon fat. I associate bacon with more savory dishes rather than sweet.
This sounds great – and so easy! I often make baked apples for dessert, although admittedly I LOVE crust!! But because I insist on making my own often I only enjoy pie at Thanksgiving. This is a great way to enjoy all year long! Thanks for sharing.
Great blog recommendation and recipe. I signed up for Drew’s 10-day course, too. Thanks for sharing a great resource!
“Yet a challenge people often come across is finding recipes that are easy, healthy AND taste good. ”
Really??
Those are my favorite kind of recipes!!! I find if you start with good ingredients it is hard to mess up too bad
@Jim – true many of my followers are women, but I do have more men following than you think. Kind of an underground group, so to speak. Men have the same problems as women, maybe just less so due to culture & social issues.
@Steve – I understand your hesitation using bacon fat, so yes, use the butter. And using butter is FINE. Much better than margarine or other ‘fake’ stuff.
@Jan, @Stacey @ Donna – your welcome!
@Sally – let me know how you like it.
@Darya – you’re SO right. By starting with good ingredients it is tough to mess up. Just unfortunate that many people are “afraid” of things like butter. But you are so right on!! Good ingredients = good meal = good health = good mind.
The recipe sounds yummy but I’m not sure how it qualifies as healthy. Butter? Bacon fat? Sugar? Ice cream?
At the very least, I would substitute Splenda for the sugar.
@ Cheryl –
Actually, butter is all natural and much better for you than margarine and other “substitutes.” Over the last few years doctors & scientists have found that margarine is actually WORSE for you than butter.
Sugar — is fine in moderation.
As far as Splenda — though they market it as “made from real sugar” those claims are flawed, and in 2007,a European court said that the marketing of the sweetener Splenda is “misleading to consumers, and ordered that its advertising slogans be ceased.”
Splenda is not natural.
And artificial sweeteners in general (like those with saccharin) can actually cause you to gain weight. Studies have shown that the data clearly indicates that “consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin can lead to greater body-weight gain and adiposity than would consuming the same food sweetened with a higher-calorie sugar.”
Basically, the taste buds taste sweet, but there’s almost no calories that come with it, which the body expects. So there’s a change in your brain chemistry. The sweet tastes normally signal that the body is going to receive a lot of calories, and the digestive system prepares to react. As a result of the wrong interpretation, people most often over-consume calories.
Bacon fat — the recipe states you can use butter.
Ice cream — the recipe doesn’t say to buy the overloaded ice cream with caramel, nuts, marshmallows, chopped up peanut butter cups, etc. A scoop of nice, REAL vanilla ice cream is not going to cause you to gain weight or not lose weight.
It’s people who instead consume low-fat, ‘fake’ ice cream with fake ingredients that later overcompensate by bingeing on foods as their taste buds are not satisfied.
We need to stop eating fake foods and start eating REAL, WHOLESOME foods.
It’s this fear of real foods that is part of the obesity problem in this country. Start eating real foods and your will see your body will react to the foods better and your hunger & satisfaction will start to adjust to normal.
I would love to have access to your research on the benefits of butter because I have struggled with this question for a long time.
I have been unable to find any research that suggests butter is healthier than margarine. Here are some of the more credible sources from my research:
Mayo Clinic: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/margarine/HB00097
Cleveland Clinic: http://my.clevelandclinic.org/heart/prevention/askdietician/margarine.aspx
Natl’l Library of Medicine/Nat’l Institute of Health: http://wwwils.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002114.htm
NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/16/science/16real.html?fa=y
I would be very interested in links to sources that point to butter as being healthier because I like it better than margarine.
Cheryl,
As you saw by even the links you provided, the answer is not an easy one.
Basically, for years margarine was promoted as “heart healthy” and better for you than butter. As margarine was made from unsaturated vegetable oils, it was assumed that it was better – this assumption turned out wrong. Studies (the well-know Nurses Health Study) showed that margarine was worse than butter (source: Harvard School of Public Health, http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/fats-full-story/)
This was mostly due to the fact that margarines contained trans fats. We now know that trans are quite harmful (good info on trans fats from Harvard School of Public Health http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/nutrition-news/transfats/index.html)
Butter contains saturated fats, but trans fats are known to be worse for you.
Today many margarines have since omitted the trans fats.
However, the margarine products out there put out so many “claims” that are not always true (labeling laws in the US are very lax and too long to get into here. Basically, don’t always believe these “claims”, they’re mostly used a marketing ploys — for more info you can read Michael Pollan’s “In Defense of Food”, or Marion Nestle’s “What to Eat” and “Food Politics”).
The articles you linked to talked about this issue and confusion over margarine today.
In my personal view, I’d rather eat something that’s been eaten for a very long time, than something that was first created in a laboratory or factory. But that’s just me.
And I find when people use butter (as it tastes much better, which you say you do) they use less than if they were using margarine.
[...] A couple of weeks ago I showed how to make whipped cream, and pointed you to Dinneen’s site for the crustless apple pie recipe. [...]
[...] I returned the favor and wrote up a recipe on Dinneen’s site. If you’re coming over from Dinneen’s to find the recipe for whipped cream I mentioned, [...]