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!