Apple Custard Pie

You can tell when I have family visitng, can't you? It's when I start trying out stuff and posting about it. I admit, I've gotten lazy in my day-to-day life. Especially this spring. We bought a gas grill last fall, and for the past 3 weeks, I've been a grillin' fool. I still burn half of what I cook, but at least I'm using marinades so the char has a little sweet taste too it.

Speaking of sweet taste: This pie was awesome. I'd never even thought of an apple custard pie before, and then I ran across one at Recipezaar, and knew I had to try it. I think it may actually replace the Dutch Apple Pie for the foreseeable future for one simple reason: I used a graham cracker crust. That is so much easier than making pie dough!

The original recipe is here. Amazingly, I didn't change much, although I guess that's in the eye of the beholder.



Apple Custard Pie

Ingredients:

For graham cracker crust:

• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (I used Cinnamon Grahams this time)
  
• 1/3 cup Splenda
• 1/2 stick of butter, melted

For Pie:

• 1/2 cup butter, divided
• 2 Gala and 1 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced
• 1/4 cup Splenda (If I had used Splenda for baking, I would've cut it down to 1/8 cup)
• 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon, divided
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1ish tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup buttermilk

For streusel:

• 3 Tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup Splenda
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300F.

Crust: Mix cracker crumbs, Splenda and melted butter together and press into the bottom of a 9" pie pan. Bake for about 10 minutes.

Pie: Melt 1/4 cup butter in a skillet. Add apples, Splenda and cinnamon and cook for about 5-10 minutes (depending on how thick you sliced your apples) until soft but not mushy.

Butter...Sugar...They sing when they're together in my pans.

Beat 1/4 cup butter and 1 1/3 cups sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.

Add eggs 1 at a time, beating just until incorporated.

Add 2 tbsp flour and vanilla and beat until blended.

Add buttermilk and beat until smooth.

Use a slotted spoon to spoon the apple sliced onto the pie crust (leaving behind the sugary-buttery syrup. I know. Sacrilege).

Pour the custard batter evenly over the apples.

Bake for 40 minutes.

I had sprinkled some cinnamon on when I was struck with the urge to just get a fork. Luckily for my family, I carried on with the recipe.

Mix together the streusel ingredients until crumbly. Mine? didn't get crumbly. It got creamy. I have no clue why. So I just dropped it by spoonfuls all over the top of the pie and baked it for another 30-40 minutes, until the top had melted and formed a top crust.

It doesn't look like much yet...but just wait til I cut this baby open.

Also? Because the combination of butter, sugar and cinnamon can't taste BAD. So it doesn't really matter if it looks perfect. Because the inside looks like this:

I was lucky enough to have one of the last two slices for breakfast. I may make it part of my daily diet.