Gluten Free Apple Pie

Christmas and New Year’s Eve weren’t that far back. As always, we spent them at home with mum and dad. We had a lot of free time and we spent a lot of it in the kitchen cooking seasonal food.

For a few years mum has a colleague whose daughter is allergic to gluten. Every time we go back home we bring lots of gluten free treats from England and Germany. Our market is simply not that rich in terms of gluten free food, which is a shame as this type of allergy is getting more and more common. Exactly this was the reason to bake a traditional apple pie but change the recipe and make it gluten free. Everyone will be able to enjoy its remarkable taste and delicious aroma. And if you’re having difficulties finding chestnut flour, you can order it from Amazon  or buy it from a shop if you’re going on a holiday to Italy or France.

Ingredients for the Apple Pie crust:

• 250 g chestnut flour
• 180 g butter
• 20 g sugar
• 1 pack vanilla sugar
• ½ lemon
• ¼ tsp salt

Ingredients for the Apple Pie filling:

• 1 kg apples
• 100 g sugar
• 60 g walnuts
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• ½ lemon
• 1 egg white
• Sugar for sprinkling

Preparation:

1. Cut the butter into cubes and put them into a large bowl.
2. Wash the lemon and grate its rind. Squeeze the lemon juice.
3. Add all ingredients to the butter. Start making the dough by hand. Pour 75 ml cold water into a cup and gradually add it to the pie crust. Continue kneading by hand until a smooth dough ball is obtained. Wrap it in cling film and leave it in the fridge to chill for an hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 180°С. Grease a pie tin.
5. Peel and cut the apples into small cubes. Place them into a deep frying pan and fry for 4-5 minutes. Set aside to cool.
6. Take the dough out of the fridge. Divide it into halves and roll out one of them until 0.5 cm thick. If the dough is too sticky, dust the rolling pin with chestnut flour.
7. Using cookie cutters, cut out enough pieces to cover the apple pie. Add the remaining dough to the other half.
8. Roll out the dough into a large circle. Place it into the baking tin and gently press with fingers towards the bottom and the sides.
9. Put the apples over the pie crust. Arrange the cut out shapes over.
10. Brush the apple pie with egg white and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for about 35 minutes.

Bon appetit!