No sugar apple pie: Really?

I wanted to do something with some extra apples I had at home, so apple pie came to mind. But I wanted also to do something healthy and apple pie did not fit that bill. So I experimented again to do it with no sugar. To  my surprise, it came out pretty nice. The only thing I would change for the next one is to spread the pie dough a little but thinner. So here is the recipe:

For the filling:

• Green apples - I used granny smiths about 8 for this one
• Ground Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Ground Ginger
• Water
• 2 tbsp Lemon Juice

Peel, core and cut the apples in  little half moons. Put the apples in a heavy pan with water enough water to reach half way but not cover them completely.

Add lemon juice and spices (Cinnamon, grated nutmeg and ginger) to taste, cover and cook at medium heat.

Cook for about 30 minutes and you will notice the apples will start to soften and change color to brown

Once you get to this point, you can mash the apples into a sauce (optional). You can leave them whole or you can mash to your preferred consistency. I like mine quite mashed.

You can then if you wish, can the sauce for future use - You can also use this sauce to top ice creams. I made enough here for my apple pie and to keep as an ice cream topping

Now you need to make the pie crust.

Ingredients:

• 1.25 cup of white flour
• 1 stick of butter - straight from the fridge
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• Sugar to sprinkle on top (only if you want to)

You will need a food processor for this (you can also do by hand with a pastry cutter but it will take you slightly longer). Put the flour, salt and the butter (cut in little pieces) in your food processor and pulse until it is all mixed up and forms little balls slightly smaller than marbles.

Take the dough out of the processor and put on a floured surface, collect all the pieces together  and knead it a couple of times and form a ball, flatten it, cover with cling film and put in your fridge for about an hour (you can actually roll the dough at this point but it will be more difficult and will stick more).

Once the dough has cooled enough, take it out and roll it with a pin to form a circle of 1/8 inch thick.  Take your pie pan and spray it with PAM baking (the best thing I have ever used to stop baked goods to stick - it already has flour on it). Roll the dough onto your rolling pin and unroll on top of the pie pan. From here you can do any design you like. I wanted to do a folded one with leaves. To do this cut your dough in a circle about 2 inches bigger than the pie. Put your filling in the middle, fold one little piece over the filling, turn the pan a little and grab another piece and fold over the first one, keep turning and folding until the whole pie is done. With the remainder dough, knead into a bowl and roll again about 1/5 inch think, with a leaf cookie cutter, cut as many leaves as you can. With the point of a knife make indentations in each leaf to resemble the veins. Start placing the leaves following a circular pattern one next to the other, starting on the outside of the pan. Put more inner layers of leaves until you reach the center. Roll a small ball of dough and put right in the middle. Brush a little water over the dough and sprinkle with a little sugar if desired.

Bake the pie at 350 for about 1.5 hours or until it browns

Details with leaves - center of pie

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