Apple Pie (Dairy free, Gluten free, Grain Free, Sugar free)

Our family were invited to a high tea in celebration of a special little girls' birthday recently and not wanting to add to the busy hosts' kitchen preparation, I decided to try my hand at two treats that I could enjoy at the tea.  The first one being an apple pie which seemed to be much of a challenge in getting the crust correct, but I adapted a recipe from one of my sugar free recipe books and was thrilled at the outcome.  I took the apple pie along with me, had a slice at the tea party and returned with an empty pie plate - the other guests though it was pretty amazing as a sugar free pie! The second baked treat is also apple based treat and I will blog it later this week after I try it out for the second time. 

Served with whipped coconut cream, the Apple pie was notably good!


Ingredients
1 cup almond flour
¾ cup preservative and sugar free desiccated coconut
½ cup chopped walnuts
2 tbslp coconut oil
1 egg
Pinch of salt 

I decided to go with an apple filling made up with:

3 Granny Smith apples, cored, peeled and thinly sliced
The juice of half a fresh lemon
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Optional:  Cranberries or Raisins

Mix all the filling ingredients together and add to the pie crust, then bake.
 
Here's How

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees
• Process the almond flour, dessicated coconut, and walnuts in a food processor by pulsing until everything becomes crumb-size.

• Add egg to the food processor and process until mixed in. Then drizzle the coconut oil and process on low until the mixture forms a nice, smooth ball.

• Press dough into large size pie plate or 8×8 glass dish. It will press in easier if you use either cling wrap or aluminium foil over the mixture and press down on the dough to press evenly around the plate.

• Bake the crust at 180 degrees for 10-15 minutes until the crust is golden brown. Remove from oven. Cool for five minutes, then add the filling of choice and bake further.
• If you are adding the filling before baking the crust, bake covered in aluminium foil for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for a further 10-15 minutes uncovered, to brown.

• If you decide to make an Apple Tart: the directions say not to cook the crust first but to cook the apples and the crust all together. So, you don’t need to pre-cook the crust for this recipe
• You may also use the pie crust pasty as a crumble, adding the fruit of choice to a greased pie plate, evenly breaking up and crumbling the pie crust pastry over the filling and bake accordingly.

• Serve warm with cold whipped coconut cream.