06 October 2015

Ritz & Apple Pie a la Mode

This recipe comes from Tyler Malek of Salt & Straw as part of our Chef in the Market series at our PSU Market. The Ritz crackers and cheddar cheese might sound strange but we encourage you to give them a try!

Ingredients

For the pie filling:

  • 1 roll Ritz crackers
  • 1 whole apple
  • 1 C sugar
  • 1 tsp corn starch
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • Pinch of salt
  • Zest from ½ a lemon
  • Juice from 1 whole lemon
  • Diced hazelnuts (optional)

For the pie dough:

  • 2 C flour
  • 2/3 C butter
  • 2 T sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • about ¼ C cold water
  • 3 slices cheddar cheese OR egg wash (optional)

For serving:

Salt & Straw vanilla ice cream

Method

  1. Chop the apple, lightly crush the Ritz crackers, add the lemon zest and toss together in a bowl.
  2. Mix the sugar, corn starch, cinnamon, salt, vanilla extract, and lemon juice in a pot and heat the sugar mixture until it starts to simmer just a bit. Add the hazelnut if you’re using them and let the mixture sit for a minute.
  3. Meanwhile, add the flour, sugar, and butter to a mixer and mix using a spade attachment until the butter breaks up into pea size pieces. Add the water and salt to the buttered flour and mix until the dough forms a ball.
  4. Split the dough into 2 balls and roll each of the dough balls out using a bit of flour as needed to get two a nice, round, pie shaped circles. Put the botttom (ugliest) pie shell in the bottom and fill it with all of the ritz apple yumminess. Cover the apples with the top shell and crimp the edges.
  5. Bake at 375F for about 35-45 minutes until the top is golden brown.
  6. When baking the pie and there is about 5 minutes left in baking time, you can either lather the pie top with an egg wash or top with a few slices of cheddar cheese… both are yummy options. Cool the pie and serve with ice cream!