Saturday, October 31, 2015

Ricotta Cheese Apple Pie with Apricot Glaze

Hello, everybody!! The Fresh Pioneer is back with a delicious, high protein dessert that tastes good, too! 
I love cheese. I love aged, fresh, hard, soft, home made, store bought. I love Stilton, Gouda, Brie, Cheddar, Paremesan, Mozzerella. I love herbed chevre most of all, and we make our own! Just a few days ago, I made herbed goat cheese and with a pint of goat milk got about 8 oz of delicious fresh cheese for our French bread. 
Anyway, I also love pie. Some people put cheddar on their apple pie but I've never gotten into that. I do eat cheddar and apples together, and blue cheese and pears. But sweet-cheese combo has never been my favorite.
But a friend told me about this ricotta pie that has a lot of protein and not much sugar. I thought it would be a good break from the Nutella and fried apple pies we've had around here.

So, you'll need:
3 c. thinly sliced apples
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
2 eggs
1 c. ricotta cheese
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. heavy cream
1/8 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. grated lemon peel
1/4 cup apricot jam
Pastry to line deep 9" pie pan
Mix the ricotta, lemon, sugar, heavy cream, salt together until completely smooth. 
Pour into pie shell.
Layer on the apple, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg mix. I actually left off the sugar from the apple mix because these were Fuji apples, which are very sweet naturally. I think with Granny Smith, I'd add the sugar back, but it was perfectly sweet without it.
Layer until the top of the pie is covered with apples.
Put the 1/4 cup apricot jam in a bowl with 4 TBS water. Heat/ microwave for several minutes until blended. I used a no sugar added apricot jam we made this summer from leftover apricots and it was delicious. You can get no sugar added apricot jam at the grocery store.
So, the pie is ready to go in for 400F for ten minutes. Then reduce the oven 350F and bake for 45 minutes. Before I put the pie in, I had second thoughts about that apricot, wondering if the cinnamon and apricot would go well together. A facebook friend commented that she makes a Jacques Pepin (he of the debone a chicken post!) pie with apples, cinnamon and apricot and it was delicious. So, I felt a little better about whether it was going to be a pie fail. 
 After it was done, I was afraid to take a bite.... but it was DELICIOUS. Like a cheese danish, but not as sweet.
 I was afraid it would spill over and it did a little bit, but I had a pan underneath the pies.
 Also, I added almond slivers to the top of one, just to add some crunch. Everyone said this was their favorite, so we may make it this way from now on!

That's all for now. Happy Halloween!!!
Be sure to run by Amazon and pick up my historical Christian novel, Purple like the West for FREEEEEE. Also, All The Blue of Heaven is .99 this week! Until next time!


10 comments:

  1. I love apple pie but that's a combination I would never have dreamed of. I'm such an uncreative cook. Happy Halloween, Virginia -- bet your house will be in a hubbub tonight.

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    1. It's been a hubbub for a few days! Since it's ont he weekend this year, we've had a lot of mid-week parties at the library and other community places. And now the private parties and nursing homes are taking a turn. *whew* A lot of costume changes!

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  2. When I saw your FB post about this, I had a feeling it was for Yankee Belle.

    My doubts would have been more about the ricotta than the apricots and cinnamon. I love ricotta on all things tomato, but mixing it with lemon and then apples and apricots would have made me nervous.

    Glad you did the doubtful work for us!

    I do love the higher protein than sugar ration though!

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    1. Everything is for Yankee Belle! lol. But to be truthful, I do have a pork roast in the oven that won't be on the blog because I'm sure it's been done many times.

      I liked the protein/sugar balance, too. My kids love desserts but I just hate the constant intake of sugar so we do try to limit it to once a week, and if we can get it with a little protein, too? Bonus!

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  3. How unique and this sounds yummy. Must try it. I'm like Cate and interested in the higher protein than sugar ratio.

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    1. I was wondering if it would taste sweet enough since there wasn't much sugar in the pie and ricotta isn't very sweet, but it was plenty sweet for my kids who are very concerned with limiting their sugar. LOL

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  4. This sounds so good, Virginia!! I love the idea of adding cheese.

    BTW, I ADORE herbed goat cheese. We eat it on sesame crackers around here. So good! I love that you make it.

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  5. I'll have to post about it sometime, Missy. It's SUPER easy. And so much cheaper. Feta is about half what chevre is here, but nobody likes feta. The herbed goat cheese is so spendy. I thought I'd try to make it myself ONCE, and if it didn't work out, just buy it. But it was so easy, my girls make it themselves. The goat milk doesn't have to be unpasteurized, either, which makes it about as easy as just grabbing it in the dairy aisle, adding lemon juice, letting it curdle, squeezing out the whey, and adding the herbs and salt.

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    1. I never would have imagined it was so easy. Have you ever tried making fresh mozzarella? They make it look easy on the cooking shows (but I guess you buy the curds).

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  6. This is a beautiful pie! And you had me at the apricot glaze :) I'll have to try this.

    Thanks, Virginia!

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