One year I was looking for recipes to use up all my garden zucchini & I found this recipe for "faux" apple pie that uses zucchini instead of apples. My husband loves apple pie & couldn't believe it (after he tried it) when I told him I made it using zucchini. The key is to use lots of spices & the zucchini pick up the flavor of the spices. My 13 year old loves to take this to school in her lunch, offer samples to her friends, and THEN tell them they just ate zucchini! I also want to share with you a recipe for sourdough pie crust (since I'm trying to use sourdough in most of my baking now for health reasons).
1/2 cup wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter or coconut oil (I used coconut oil)
1/2 cup sourdough starter
With a fork, mix together: flour, salt, baking soda. Cut in the butter or coconut oil. Add the sourdough starter & mix thoroughly. Cover & allow to rest on the counter for 6 hours.
Faux Apple (Zucchini) Pie
2 (9 inch) pie crusts
4 cups zucchini: peeled, cored/seeded, & thinly sliced*
3/4 cup unrefined sugar**
2 tablespoons tapioca
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon milk
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll out your pie crusts (if you haven't already) to 9 inch circles. Place the bottom crust inside your pie pan. Combine the sugar, tapioca, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cornstarch together in a large bowl. Add the zucchini and lemon juice and mix well. Pour mixture into the pie crust. Dot with butter. Place second crust over the top and pinch the edges together to seal. Cut 4 vents in the top of the crust. If desired, brush with milk and sprinkle with additional sugar.
Bake at 400 for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 and bake for an additional 50 minutes, or until top crust is lightly browned.
*This is very important: make sure you peel & remove the core of your zucchini. You do not want zucchini seeds in your pie! Plus, once you've peeled & cored it, then cut each slice in half, you get a nice "C" shape which more resembles cut apples.
**If you want to play with this recipe a little bit, and pump up the apple flavor, you can reduce the sugar & replace the 1/4 cup lemon juice with 1/4 cup apple juice. Combine apple juice, zucchini, tapioca, & spices & let sit for 15 minutes so the zucchini can "soak up" the flavors. By the way, I didn't have any lemon juice, or tapioca, when I made the last pie, so I just left both of them out & it was still fine!
Enjoy!
Lisa
This post is a part of:
Pennywise Platter Thursday
Fightback Friday
Monday Mania
Slightly Indulgent Tuesday
Traditional Tuesdays
My work is having a harvest party next week. We are doing a pie competition. I wasn't going to enter a pie cause I didn't know what to make...this post has now changed my mind. I have a big zucchini in my fridge from my garden that I have been wanting to use. Thanks for this great option! I'm excited to try it out!
ReplyDelete@Rebekah- sounds like fun! Especially if they didn't know it was zucchini til after they tried it. Hope it works for you :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a neat idea - one of my friends always lets her apples macerate in the sugar and spices for 2-3 days before they hit the pit; that should really allow the zucchini to pick up the flavors.
ReplyDeleteI think I would also try half organic apple cider and half lemon juice to amp up the flavor.
@DavetteB
DavetteBrown.com
@JazzyMama- interesting ideas, let me know how it works for you if you try it! Thanks!
ReplyDelete