A day after Thanksgiving, John looked at the apple pie my mom had made and sighed. "Oh, I miss that...."
Obviously, there was only one thing to do!
I had a gluten free pie crust from the freezer case at Whole Foods. I sent Peter out to our local apple orchards, and he came back with what I needed: Cortland apples, which stay nice and white and fairly firm while cooking. The result was delicious, and John took the last two slices back to UConn with him.
HH's Apple Crumb Pie
Preheat the oven to 350.
Take out a 9-inch single crust GF pie pastry from the freezer. It will defrost as you do the rest.
Peel, core and slice 6 Cortland apples. This will make a healthy 6 cups of apples.
Mix the apples in a large bowl with:
1/2 cup sugar,
1 tsp cinnamon,
1/2 tsp nutmeg, and
2 Tbs rice flour.
Pour that into the pie crust.
Go back to that dirty bowl....no sense in messing up another one.
Mix in the bowl:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar,
2 tsp cinnamon,
1/4 cup butter, and
1/2 cup GF flour. (I used Bob's Red Mill. As I was pouring, I remembered that I also have almond flour in my freezer, so I threw about 2 Tbs in, making 1/2 cup total.)
Use a pastry blender to mix it all together until it becomes crumbly.
Sprinkle this mixture over the apples. (It will be tricky! Pack it in a little....)
I put the pie on a cookie sheet so I wouldn't have a big mess. It didn't spill over much at all (maybe a few drops), but I hated to think how I would feel if I had to clean my oven all over again. Not only that, the cookie sheet ensures that I won't lose anything if the pie was a little heavy for the aluminum pan....
Bake 60-65 minutes. Look for it to be a little bit bubbly. You might want to cover it with foil for the last 15 minutes if you think it is browning too much.
Cool. Serve plain, a la mode, or in the New England manner with a slice of cheddar cheese.
