Apple Cobblestone Pie

 

As I write this it is the middle of the afternoon on Saturday. Its one of those nice autumn days where the sun is shining and the air is mild, but with the promise of crisp, if that makes sense.

I am going to my sister's for supper tonight for cabbage rolls. She is making them from scratch. We have both been craving them.  I am really looking forward to them myself! Homemade Cabbage Rolls are the best!
 

I said that I would bring dessert.  I never like to go anyplace to eat empty handed.  Desserts are always welcome and to be honest, I think they take a bit of stress off of the hostess.

We all enjoy apple pie and this is the height of apple season. The shops are filled with an abundance of different varieties. I love the smell in the produce aisle at this time of year.  

Heck I love the smell outdoors this time of year, it is all drying leaves, and ripe apples, and pumpkin . . . . soon to be burnt pumpkin!  

 

The recipe I am sharing was one from the cookbook entitled The Complete Book of Baking by Pillsbury. I had originally gotten this book back in the mid 1990's.  

We were living in Meaford, Ontario at the time. There was a book shop at the edge of town that dealt in lots of books, mostly out of print, etc. You could get books for a really reasonable price.  

I picked this one up and it was destined to become one of my favorite ones.  I  was unable to take it with me when I moved over to the UK, so when I was there I procured another copy.  

Yes, I did like the book that much!  Of course I was unable to bring it back with me when I returned to Canada last year.  Thankfully my father still had my old copy and he wanted to give it back to me. (He doesn't cook at all these days.) I happily accepted his offer.

 

It is filled with a multitude of baking recipes. Everything from the very basics to the more elaborate. If you are looking for a good every day baking book, I highly recommend it.

There are eight different apple pie recipes in it, each one sounding more delicious than the last. This is one of them. Apple Cobblestone Pie. 

A delicious single crust apple pie, filled with quartered apples and topped with a crisp, sweet and buttery coconut streusel topping.  What's not to love about that!

 

WHAT ARE THE BEST APPLES FOR BAKING WITH

Not all apples are created equal. Some are great for eating out of hand, but not so good for baking. Some are good for baking, but not so good for eating out of hand.  

Apple varieties good for baking and cooking have a tart flavor and firm texture.  In North America for successful results choose Jonathan, McIntosh, Winesap, Granny Smith, Rhode Island Greening, Rome Beauty, or Northern Spy varieties.

 

In the UK, Bramley apples are top of the list, followed by Granny Smith, Braeburn, Cortland, Pippins,  and Blenheim Orange.  

One pound of apples s the equivalent of 3 medium apples and will yield 3 cups of slices apples. 

 

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO MAKE APPLE COBBLESTONE PIE

Simple wholesome ingredients, except for the sugar that is.

• one 9-inch unbaked deep pie crust
• 6 to 10 medium apples
• granulated sugar
• all purpose flour (plain flour)
• ground cinnamon
• ground nutmeg
• lemon juice
• coconut
• butter

If you are looking for a good pastry recipe, I highly recommend my butter and lard pastry. You can find the recipe for that here.  You will need to scroll down the page a bit.

  

HOW TO MAKE THE FILLING FOR APPLE COBBLESTONE PIE 

This has to be one of the simpler fillings to make for an apple pie. I used 6 medium to large apples for my pie.  You will need to remove their peelings and then cut them into quarters.  Once you have done that it is very easy to remove and discard the cores.

A mixture of flour, cinnamon, nutmeg,  and sugar is put into a bowl.  Add the apple quarters and toss everything together to coat along with a tablespoon of lemon juice.

These get laid out into the pie crust, rounded sides up.  I started at the outer edge and worked my way inwards, overlapping them a tiny bit to get them all in.

Once you have made and placed the filling you can make the streusel topping.

  

HOW TO MAKE THE STREUSEL TOPPING

Streusel toppings are usually fairly easy to make. They are as simple as stirring together some dry ingredients and rubbing in butter until you have a crumble mixture. 

This streusel contains coconut. I used unsweetened shredded coconut.  The recipe did not specify sweetened or not, but with sugar in the base/filling as well as in the streusel, I figured I could not go wrong by using unsweetened.

 

I always put my fruit pies onto a aluminum foil lined baking sheet to bake. You never know if a fruit pie is going to bubble over.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Or in this case it helps to prevent you from having to clean up burnt on sticky fruit juices and sugar from the floor of your oven.  

This pie bubbled over the edge only a little bit, but I was still happy that I had used a baking sheet beneath the pie to catch it.

 

Because of the sweet nature of the streusel topping and the coconut it contains you may be worried that the topping will get too dark or even start to burn.  The oven temperature is fairly high. (375*F/195*C)

Do keep an eye on the pie and check it about half way through the bake time. If you feel it is getting too dark, place a sheet of aluminum foil loosely over top. This will help to prevent the topping from burning.

You can always remove it for the last five minutes of bake time to crisp things up again if you are worried about that!

Altogether this is a very attractive pie and it smells really good when it is baking. I can't really show you a slice of it because I am bringing it to my sisters.

It is one thing to cut a piece out of a pie you are going to serve at home, but something else to cut a piece out of a pie you are bringing to someone else's home! 

This would be delicious served warm or at room temperature with a scoop of ice cold vanilla ice cream on top or in the British way with some custard sauce or pouring cream!

Apple Cobblestone Pie

Yield: 8 servings

Author: Marie Rayner

Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 38 MinTotal time: 53 Min

This single crust apple pie boasts a coconut streusel topping. The pie itself is said to look like cobblestones. Its delicious no matter how it looks!

Ingredients

You will need:

• Pastry for one 9-inch unbaked single pie crust.

For the Filling:

• 6 to 10 medium apples, peeled, cored and quartered
• 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
• 3 TBS all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 TBS lemon juice

For the streusel topping:

• 2/3 cup coconut (50g) (the recipe did not specify sweetened or unsweetened. I used unsweetened)
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour (35g)
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar (50g)
• 2 TBS butter at room temperature

Instructions

1. Prepare the pastry and use it to line a 9 inch deep pie dish, taking care not to stretch or tear the pastry and fluting the edge all the way around.
2. Preheat the oven to 375*F/190*C/gas mark 5. Place the pastry lined pie dish onto a foil lined baking sheet.  Set aside.
3. Peel, quarter and core your apples.  Mix the flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and apples together in a bowl along with the lemon juice. Combine well the apples are well coated.  
4. Arrange the apples in the pastry lined pie dish, rounded sides up, so that they resemble a cobbled street. Sprinkle any sugar mixture remaining in the bowl over top.
5. Combine all of the topping ingredients together in a bowl, rubbing them together until crumbly.  Sprinkle evenly over top of the apples.
6. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the apples are tender. If you think the streusel is getting to dark, cover lightly with a piece of aluminum foil, removing it for the last five minutes.
7. Cut into wedges to serve.  Ice cream goes very nicely!

Notes:

Large apples can be substituted for medium apples, peel and core as above, but cut each into 6 pieces.

Did you make this recipe?

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