First you need to purchase a box of refrigerated pie crust. Many stores carry their own brand or Pillsbury is a good one to use. I also have found that the Walmart Great Value brand makes a really nice pie crust that is also very easy to work with and is a little less expensive to purchase. The boxed refrigerated pie crusts are found in the refrigerated section of your local grocery store and are generally in a rectangular shaped box and contain 2 pie crusts that make one 9 inch pie. They are between 14-15 ounces per box. The important thing is that they contain 0 grams of trans fats and the Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust contains 0 grams of sugar as well. There is really no preparation required in using these crusts. The main thing is to bring them out from the refrigerator and allow them to sit at room temperature for awhile so that they will be fairly easy to roll out and place inside a glass ungreased pie pan.
Here are the items that you will need to make the pie as follows:
1 box of refrigerated pie crusts
1 9 inch glass round pie pan
1 mixing bowl
1 teaspoon
1 tablespoon
1-2 teaspoons of wheat flour depending on your selection of apples.
10 medium sized apples The choice of apples is up to you for everyone has a preference for a particular apple. I found that Granny Smith apples makes the pie too dry for my taste and I also did not care for Fuji since they contain more sugar in the apples and also put more juice into the pie. I have liked using Braeburn apples the best.
1/2 cup of Splenda
2-3 teaspoons of cinnamon depending on your taste
1/2 teaspoon salt (this can be optional)
1/4 cup chopped shelled walnuts
1/4 to 1/2 cup dried cranberries ( I prefer the Ocean Spray brand)
Silver Foil
Metal flat baking sheet
The last two items as mentioned above the dried cranberries and the chopped walnuts are optional and sometimes I add them to the pie filling and other times I do not, obviously the choice is yours, for it all depends on your taste.
Wash, dry, peel and core all the apples. Slice the apples into thin slices and place in a bowl.
Add the 1/2 cup Splenda into the bowl and mix it into the apples.
Add the salt into the mixture and stir all of it together. Remember adding the salt is optional and I do not use it at times. At this point you need to decide if you want to add the walnuts or the dried cranberries and if so then add both items into the mixing bowl with the other items and stir all of it around until the apples are coated thoroughly. Some recipes call for a teaspoon of lemon juice and I do not generally add that to my recipe.
Adding 1-2 teaspoons of wheat flour is generally used so that the inside of the pie will not have too much juice when it is totally cooked. I found that if you use Granny Smith apples that it is not necessary to really add any flour for they produce a fairly dry pie to begin with. However; with other apples it may be required so that there will not be too much juice in the inside of the pie after it is cooked. This obviously depends on what apples you select and use for your pie. When using Braeburn apples I do add 1-2 teaspoons of wheat flour to the apple mixture and stir it around until all of the apples and other ingredients are coated well.
In the glass pie pan place one of the refrigerated pie crusts that was inside the box. You just open the end of the pie crust and slide it out of the plastic wrapping that it came in, and then roll it out with your finger tips and lift it carefully into the ungreased glass 9 inch pie pan.
Now place all of the ingredients that were in the mixing bowl into the pie crust that is inside the glass pie pan, and move them around so that they are distributed evenly around the pie pan over the bottom crust.
Take the second pie crust and do as you did above with the first crust, roll it out with your finger tips and now place it on top of the pie pan over the apple mixture. Pinch the edges around the entire pie pan, joining the bottom crust with the top crust making the edges fluted. Also place 3-4 small slits in the center of the top pie crust. This allows the pie to breath some when cooking.
Make sure that your oven is pre-heated to 425 degrees. Place the glass pie pan onto a flat metal baking sheet. I usually cover the metal baking sheet with silver foil in case any of the juice drips from the pie during cooking, thus making it really easy to clean up after baking. Place the metal pan containing the glass pie pan with your pie contents into your pre-heated over and bake for about 55 minutes depending on your oven and how the temperature in your oven is calibrated. Check the pie at about 45 minutes to see how it is progressing. The pie is done when the top crust is browned. Take it out of the oven and set it aside to cool for about 30 minutes or so. You can then slice your pie and serve it with a scoop of low fat, no sugar added Splenda Blue Bunny vanilla ice cream on top, and as you can see you have a wonderful dessert. I hope you enjoy this recipe, I have also made the same pie with peaches, nectarines, blueberries and other fruits. I have left out the cranberries and the chopped walnuts for the other pies that are not apple.
