Deep-Dish Apple Pie
With all that delicious fruit an apple pie should be healthy, but the truth is a slice can have as much as 750 calories. For the most part, the culprit is the crust. We use whole-wheat pastry flour to add fiber and lower the saturated fat by replacing some of the butter with canola oil. The brown sugar-sweetened filling in this pie is made with two kinds of apples for the perfect balance. A slice has half the calories of a typical version—sweet!
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Here are a few tricks to get a healthier pie without sacrificing flavor:
1. Keep the saturated fat in the crust to a minimum.
Butter doesn't have to be totally off limits, just use less of it. In this recipe, reduced-fat sour cream replaces some of the butter, which keeps the dough moist and tender, without adding tons of saturated fat. And we follow the basic rules of great pastry: always use chilled butter and ice-cold water, use a light hand when working with the dough and let the dough chill before rolling it out.
2. Add some fiber by using a mixture of whole-wheat flour and all-purpose flour in the crust.
There's a fine balance between making your pie crust healthy and making your pie crust taste like cardboard. The results can be less than appetizing if you use all whole-wheat flour, but in this recipe, we use a mix of traditional all-purpose and whole-wheat pastry flour. The pastry flour adds fiber, but keeps the texture tender, and by blending it with all-purpose you get a less wheaty taste.
3. Choose apples for flavor and texture.
And use plenty of them! Apple pie should taste good, but not feel like mush in your mouth. We like to use a mix of McIntosh and Granny Smith in this apple pie recipe. The McIntosh add a nice tangy flavor while the Granny Smith apples also taste good, but break down less when they cook, giving the filling a more toothsome texture. And since this is apple pie, use plenty of fruit. We made this version deep-dish so there's extra room for the filling (and more apples means an added bump of soluble fiber).
4. Keep your sugar in check.
Apple pie is about apples. Why drown them in sugar? Cook down a portion of the apples for the filling before adding them to the crust. Why? Well, so the crust doesn't collapse and crack as much while it's baking (the filling won't shrink as much if some of it is already precooked) and it concentrates the natural flavors and sugar of the apples, so you don't have to add as much sugar to your filling.
Ingredients
Directions
Tips
Make Ahead Tip: Prepare the crust (Step 1), wrap tightly and refrigerate for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 6 months.
Equipment: 9 1/2-inch deep-dish pie pan
Ingredient Note: Whole-wheat pastry flour, lower in protein than regular whole-wheat flour, has less gluten-forming potential, making it a better choice for tender baked goods. You can find it in the natural-foods section of large supermarkets and natural-foods stores. Store in the freezer.
Nutrition Facts
2 starch, 2 fruit, 2 fat
