I might be a bit tired, and sometimes I feel like my brain isn’t working pretty well. Last week I made groceries online and ordered 4 packs of apples by mistake. To amend my mistake I had the brilliant idea of freezing some of the apples. Have you ever froze apples? I tell you, the result is not great. After going through my first pack of apples I then defrost one of the three packs still in my freezer. The apples, allow me to say, have seen better days. They were mushy and dark - unappealing to say the least.

I thought about throwing all in the garbage, but I decided to give them one last chance to shine. And although they did not taste the best to eat on their own, they were great in several recipes. For days now we have been eating apple sauce, apple spread, apple scone, apple oatmeal, and the last and the best, apple pie!

This recipe was delicious and even easier to make as the apples were already kinda cooked (from freezing). You will need 2 hours for this to be done and another hour to cool before serving.

Ingredients

Filling

• 10 previously frozen apples (defrost), peeled and seeded

• 6 cloves

• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder

• 1 teaspoon of nutmeg

• 2 cinnamon sticks

• 1/2 tablespoon of coconut oil

Topping

• 1 fresh apple sliced

• 1/2 cup of crushed pecans

• 1 tablespoon of maple syrup

Crust

• 1 1/3 of cups all purpose gluten-free flour (certified gluten free)*

• 3 tablespoons of tapioca starch

• 1/4 teaspoon of fine sea salt

• 1/3 cup of coconut oil (solid)

• 1/2 tablespoons monkey fruit sugar

• 3 tablespoons ice cold water

Instructions

Filling

In a saucepan add the apples and the spices. Mash the apples until the apples are smooth. Stir well so all the ingredients are well blended, cooke on medium-high temperature until starts to boil then reduce to a simmer. Cover and let it cook for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally. After one hour, uncover the pan and increase the heat to a high. Stirring constantly, cook until the apple mix start get a creamier texture, allowing some of the water to evaporate. When you notice it is unsticking from the bottom of the pan, remove from heat and add the coconut oil. Stir well to mix the oil and let it cool.

Crust

Preheat your oven to 350ºF and have a 9-inch pie dish ready. (No need to grease it.) In the bowl of a large food processor fitted with an "S" blade, add in the flour, salt, and coconut oil. Secure the lid and press the "pulse" button several times until the coconut oil has disappeared into the flour. The mixture should look like a crumbly flour. (If you have a pastry cutter, you can use that instead of the food processor.)

Add in the maple syrup and cold water, and pulse the mixture again until the dough comes together. It's normal for it to stick together and start to form a ball. Be careful not to run the food processor for too long, as you don't want to warm up the coconut oil. As soon as it looks like pie dough, you're done with the mixing part!

Lay a large sheet of parchment paper on your counter and place the ball of dough in the middle of it. Lay another large sheet of parchment paper over the dough ball and press is down with your hands to start to flatten out the ball into a crust. Use a rolling pin over the top layer of parchment paper and roll the pie dough out until it's roughly 11 or 12 inches in diameter, to fill a 9-inch pie plate with room to go up the sides of the pan. Once the crust is rolled out, remove the top layer of parchment paper.

Carefully lift the crust up using the bottom piece of parchment paper and flip it over onto your hand. Use both hands to gently lower the crust into your pie pan and remove the parchment paper (that's now on top of the crust) once it's in place. You'll need to use your fingers to press the pie crust into the corners of the pan, and you might need to break off pieces of the crust that are overflowing from the edges. Feel free to use pieces of the dough to repair any holes-- just press extra dough into any spots that break. Use your fingers to flatten the edges of the crust for a smooth look.

Take to the oven for 15 min.