RECIPE: Swedish Apple Pie Recipe

Yikes, I haven't posted in a week -- my mashed potato coma was followed by Black Friday madness, Cyber Monday impulse shopping, and then a day or two of sheer laziness. But, I'm back. And I have a pie recipe as a sort of peace offering for being a bad, bad blogger.

We went to my in-laws' house for Thanksgiving, and they asked if I'd bring a cherry pie. I don't know how to make one of those, so I offered to make an apple pie instead. But if you want to get technical, I don't know how to make that either, so I decided to make a Swedish apple pie.

I don't think it's actually Swedish, but that's not important.

It's super-easy, and that is important.

You'll need:

• 5-6 medium-sized apples (I like Rome apples)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 Tbsp. cinnamon
• 1 1/2 sticks butter (melted)
• 1 cup flour
• 1 egg

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease the bottom of a pie plate.  Chop the apples into thin slices and fill the pie dish until it's about level with the top. (Nope, there's no crust on the bottom. Have faith!)
Mix 1/4 cup sugar and 2 Tbsp. of cinnamon in a bowl, then pour evenly over the apples. Then mix the egg, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour, and the melted butter in a bowl and pour the mixture evenly over the apples. Some will fill in the cracks, the rest will sit on top. Bake for 45 minutes or until the top turns light golden and a little bit crispy to the touch.

Everyone polished it off and my brother-in-law nominated it as my new signature dish. Woohoo! Win.

Plus it's apples. So don't feel like you have to wait until the holidays. It's practically health food!

RECIPE: Braided Apple Crisp Pastry

First, about the title of this post: I concocted this recipe and then realized I didn't know what it would actually be called in bakery-land. Is it a turnover? A streusel? It's not a tart, right? (Or is it tarte?) So I decided to play it safe and go with pastry. That's my fancy kitchen jargon.

Anyway. I got inspired by this blog post on Eat Live Run, but needed to make a few adaptations to fit my own cooking philosophy.

Namely: Needs more sugar. Needs fewer steps.

So in lieu of baking my own bread, I picked up some Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts (the rolled-up kind) and used a simplified version of my mom's apple crisp recipe as the filling. This recipe makes two braids.

FILLING:

• 5 apples, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• heaping spoonful of margarine or butter, melted
• 1/2 t. cinnamon
• 1/2 t. nutmeg

Mix everything together. Put a little bit of flour on the bottom of a baking sheet, lay the pie crust flat, and -- leaving the center intact -- cut five diagonal slits on either side, like you're drawing a fugly Christmas tree, or the Element skateboard logo. Scoop half the mixture into the center.

With the diagonals facing down and away from the center, start braiding your dough like you're lacing up a corset.(In the photo below, the starting point was the lower-right part.)

Put it in the oven on 375 degrees for about 15-20 minutes. Depends on your oven. Watch for the edges to turn slightly golden.

Last, you'll need to make a glaze to put on top.

GLAZE:

• 3/4 cup confectioner's sugar
• 1 T. milk
• 1/4 t. vanilla

Stir it up and pour it all over the braid while it's still warm. This whole recipe honestly took me about 10-15 minutes and two bowls to prepare. Not going to lie, I ate the "first draft" pretty much entirely by myself, and then took the second braid to a baby shower, where everyone polished it off. It's delish.