Apple Custard Pie

It’s fall. It’s still fall. I am a little late with this apple dessert recipe, but apples are still in season here in Norway, and they’re still awesome, so I’m sharing this recipe anyways. And by the way, it’s awesome. And gluten free. I like gluten, but this one happens to be without it, so I figured I’d tell you. ‘Cause some people don’t eat gluten, and that’s okay.

By the way, you can serve this dessert if you’re having guests over – it’s easy and has a perfect combination of creamy, crunchy, gooey, sweet, tart and nutty. Yum yum.

Anyways, I mentioned that his dessert is easy to make, but I did not say it was delicious, and therefore I’m saying it now. It’s delicious. It consists of a Kransekake-like* almond-oat crust, vanilla custard (store bought, we’re cheating and I don’t care – I have better things to do than make homemade custard and so do you.) and thin, luscious slices of tart apples. And of course, I nice drizzle of cinnamon on top. I can’t wait to share the recipe and some nice pictures with you – I will apologize on beforehand for the darkness, but the sun goes down before 4 PM now in Oslo (I took these pictures at 4), and the weather is shit, so natural lighting is rather poor. Let’s get to it!

* Super-traditional Norwegian almond dessert – it kind of tastes like baked marzipan and we make them ring shaped and put them on top of each other. We eat this on our National/Constitution Day and it’s awesome. You can google “kransekake” and take a look at the pictures if you’d like.

Ingredients:

2 medium/large tart apples

3 dL oats

3 dL raw almonds

10 little, fresh dates (or more for an even sweeter crust)

0,5 dL aquafaba (yes, that is chickpea brine. You can sub for a bit less water, coconut oil or almond butter if you don’t have aquafaba or don’t feel like opening a can of chickpeas)

2 tbsp applesauce (might not be necessary, you’re crust may not need more liquid by the time we’re supposed to add this – you can also sub for coconut oil)

1 tbsp neutral oil – I used rapeseed oil, but you can also use coconut oil, avocado oil, sunflower oil or whatever other oil you can think of.

a pinch of salt

4-pack of Alpro’s Vanilla Desserts (or other plant based vanilla custard – the 4-pack is about 500 grams in total).

1 tbsp cornstarch

a drizzle of cinnamon

Method:

1. Turn the oven on at 150 degrees Celcius or 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Add the almonds to a food processor and mix until it looks more like almond meal than almond chunks. Add the oats, mix it a tiny bit (not long) and add the dates. Mix until well combined and no large pieces of dates are visible. Add a pinch of salt.
2. Add the aquafaba slowly, but steadily as well as the oil. You should have a nice and sticky pie crust mixture now, but if you’re afraid it’s too crumbly, add 1-2 tbsp applesauce. In a pie dish of about 25-30 cm in diameter, lightly grease the bottom and sides with vegan butter, coconut oil or other oil (unless you have a genius pie dish like mine where the piece in the middle comes out as a round plate underneath the pie and grease is unnecessary). Take the crust mixture out of your foodprocessor and into the pie dish and start squeezing it out. It might be far too sticky, in which case, do your best and put it in the fridge when you can’t take it no more. Let it cool and try again later.
3. To a mixing bowl, add the four little vanilla desserts and a tablespoon of cornstarch. Mix well with a whisk and let sit while you prepare the apples. Chop the apples into fairly thin slices (see picture below).
4. Once you’ve done all of these things, you can make a second attempt at covering the pie dish with crust. Once finished, remember to kind of stab it with a fork several places on the surface of the crust to let some air through while cooking. Add the custard and line the apples up nicely as shown in the pictures. You can also say “screw that” and just dump them into the custard for an alternative, crazy and lazy look. Drizzle cinnamon over and put in the middle of the oven. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour – you want it to be cooked properly, but avoid a burnt or darkish crust.
5. Take it out, let sit for a while – 20 minutes perhaps? And enjoy:) Now you can also enjoy my dark pictures along with it. Or take your own and post on Instagram with a #greenwolff. Just an idea.

Enjoy your apple pie and have a lovely evening!