Apple pie, Italian style

Apple pie recipe

Preparation and cooking

• - Soak raisins in warm water, about 20 to 30 minutes.
• - Meanwhile peel apples and bananas.
  Slice your fruits and put in a bowl.
• - Add pine nuts, sugar, grated lemon peel, cinnamon and then sultanas, squeezed of their soaking water.
  Stir very well.
  If the fruit changes its colour, add some drops of lemon juice.
• - Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
• - Line a round baking pan with baking paper.
• - Arrange the first shortcrust pastry sheet in your baking pan.
• - Prick its bottom with a fork.
• - Fill up with your fresh fruit.
• - Cover with the second shrotcrust pastry sheet.
  Moisten your fingers and join the edges of the two sheets.
• - Prick pie surface with a fork.
• - If you have some pastry left, you can make some decorations as you can see on the photo.
• - Bake until cake surface is golden colored, about 60 minutes.

Just before serving

• - Let your apple pie cool before removing it from the pan.

Note

Tips

• - If you have time you can prepare homemade shortcrust pastry with my doses. Link below!
  Then roll out your pastry into two thin round sheets with a thickness of 0.5in
• - Keep your apple pie at room temperature for 2 to 3 days.
• - This is a typical cake to prepare for your kids but adults like it very much too!

Menu planning

• - Don't prepare this apple pie for you breakfast. I'll explain you why it is not suggested for breakfast below, in "healthy eating".
• - On the contrary it's the ideal cake to serve at the end of a full menu in fall and winter. Imagine an Italian get-together or your Sunday lunch or brunch, a birthday menu ...
  Here's a typical Italian menu. Start with Italian finger food, serve a first course based on fresh pasta or dried pasta or baked pasta, continue with a meat dish accompanied by your preferred side-dish and finally this apple cake!

Useful links for this recipe

• - To improve your apple pie you could do shortcrust pastry by hands or decide to make a light version too (low-fat shortcrust pastry) ;)))

Healthy eating

• - Apparently this apple pie does not seem to do much damage, right? But it is a cake, so be careful with sugars and other details. The sugar in this cake derives from: fruit, granulated sugar added to the filling and the amout present in its shrtcrust pastry. And there's more. You have to think about butter and eggs, main ingredients in shortcrust pastry. For all these reasons I don't suggest it for your usual breakfast but only for you special event.
• - Well, at this point I would like to make a reflection with you about sugar. There is an increasing tendency of nutritionists to lower sugars in foods, especially food targeted at children. You should know very well the danger in excessive sugars. Cakes and desserts are the first culprits! The best thing would be filling our cake with fruit only with no added sugar. The fruit, when ripe, is already sweet. Do you agree with me?
  In reality there would be no need to add more sugar. But we must adapt the palate ... and here lies the problem. We are surrounded by too sweet industrial products and then returning to true natural flavors can create some difficulties.
• - How many of you would know what is my behavior? here it is!
  When I throw a get-together with friends that share with me what I've just explained I add no granulated sugar to my filling and prepare a light shrtcrust pastry.
  When I have a formal or semi-formal dinner with guests whose taste is unknown for me I'm obliged to make this recipe exactly as I explained you.
• - This apple pie has only 2.5g of fiber.

Loretta

What's the right wine ?

My husband and I use to pair Primitivo di Manduria Liquoroso Dolce (red dessert wine from Apulia - Italy) with this apple cake. Orange juice fo children, obviously!