Apple Crumble Pie with Oatmeal Crust

I am excited! This is my first post! I was inspired to start a food blog when I saw an old friend, Ivy, blogging about her baking and cooking adventures. I thought it was a great idea and decided to start my own food blog. Check out Ivy's blog.

It was Mike's birthday last weekend, the big 27. Mike loves pie, so I figured I'd take a chance and try and bake a pie. I am not much of a baker. A good baker follows the exact recipe, no matter how hard I try, I just can't help but add my own special twist. I tend to take 3 or 4 recipes and combined them, this was the case with my apple pie.

I started with making the crust, which doubled as the pie topping.


Oatmeal Crust and Pie Topping
1 c. organic flour
1 c. organic oats
1/2 c. organic brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
dash salt
1 stick of butter

Glaze
2 tbsp organic apricot preserve
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp milk or soymilk

preheat over to 400 degrees.

Mix flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt together. Melt 6 tbsp of butter (3/4 of the stick) and combined it with dry ingredients mixture. I mix it all together with my hands. It should be a crumbly consistency. Take half of the mixture and set it aside, this will be the crumble topping.
Melt the last 1/4 of the butter and mix it in with the crust mixture. this should give it a little creamier texture.

Grease a pie tin, and transfer the crust mixture into the tin. Press it down firmly to make it fit into the tin. You can make the crust as thin or thick as you like.

Mix together the apricot preserve, egg yolk, and milk. Use a pastry brush to brush this mixture onto the entire pie crust. this glaze will keep the crust from drying out. Save the remaining glaze to glaze the topping.

Bake the crust for 10 minutes at 400 degrees. Take out pie crust to cool and reduce the oven to 350 degrees. While the pie crust is cooking and cooling, prepare the apple filling.

Apple Filling
8 organic golden delicious apples
1 c. organic sugar
1 tbsp. vanilla
3 tbsp. bourbon
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
dash salt
corn starch

Peel apples and slice them into thin slices. Mix sugar, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon and toss it with the apples. Pour the bourbon over the apples and simmer the apples in a larger skillet over medium heat (I had to do it in two batches.) As they simmer and soften, the apples will release their own juices. Slowly add corn starch 1 tsp at a time, this will thicken the juices. Do this until you reach the desired consistence for the apple filling. I probably added 3 tsp or so, maybe a bit more.

When the apples have soften but still firm, about 5-7 minutes, take them out of the skillet with a slotted spoon and arrange the apple slices in the pie crust (you want the juices to be on the apples but not so much that it drenches the pie crust.) Layer the apples in the crust until it reaches the top of the crust.

Sprinkle the remaining crumb mixture over the apple filling. Brush the remaining glaze over the crumble topping.

Bake at 350 degrees. I checked the pie every 15 minutes or so. I ended up baking it for 40 minutes or so. I knew it was done when the topping was nice and browned.

Cool the pie. As it cools the apple filling will thicken a bit.

This pie turned out awesome! Mike loved it. I served it warm with McConnell's Cinnamon Ice Cream. I have to say, it was even better when we had the pie cold the next day. I was thinking next time I make this recipe, I will make it as apple pie bars. I may also increase the apples to make more layers in the pie.