Zucchini "apple" pie
Posted by Amateur Teacher on Friday, July 27, 2012
Under: food
I've been talking about this pie for a few days now and how I was going to make it... (heck, I've been talking about zucchini for, what, like a month now?) I must say, I was somewhat afraid to make it. What if it was gross? What if I waste my ingredients on something I'm not going to eat? Then, I looked at the pile of zucchini on the counter and thought, "Seriously? What is it going to hurt?"
Since I was going to visit with my teacher friend and watch some Whole Brain Teaching videos (we've become Chris Biffle junkies, just so you know. What? You don't know who that is? Well, if you call yourself any kind of teacher get your hiney on Google and look him up!). Since Mister is on evening shift and I can barely feed myself when he's gone (not because I'm incapable just, well, what's so fun about eating by yourself?!) and my friend graciously said I could crash dinner; I offered to bring over the pie. She is a foodie herself and I knew she would try it, even if just not to hurt my feelings. Heehee! She also has three precious blonde headed boys that I knew would try it too... if I lied to them. I know, that's bad.
So, let me show you the steps to making it first before I tell you how it was received:
Ingredients:
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust
2 large zucchini
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 pinch salt
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (I didn't realize until I was ready to make it that I had no cinnamon in the house-good thing my mother-in-love gave me some apple pie spice a little while ago!)
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar (what is that stuff anyway?)
1 pinch ground nutmeg
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
Peel your zucchini and cut in half lengthwise. Then, scrape out your seeds... reserve those for your chickens. My girls LOVED those seeds! The "kids", Loretta and Lynn, nibbled on the peels.
Cut your zucchini in slices like you would an apple. You can already tell it's shaping out to actually look like an apple pie! You'll end up with about four cups of sliced apples, I mean, zucchini. Toss zucchini together with the lemon juice and salt. *Side note here* After three years of marriage here's what one of my favorite skillets looks like. Can you imagine what it's going to look like after 50 years? There's going to be so many more memories wrapped up in that, a simple skillet, and I'll get to hand it down to someone I love someday. *sigh*
Ok, wipe those tears away... we're just talking about a pie, right? Now, take your zucchini mixture and put it in your favorite skillet or fry pan and cook it 'til it's crisp tender, not mushy tender. Like so:
In a separate bowl, mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon (or apple pie spice), cream of tartar, nutmeg, and flour. Add the cooked zucchini to the sugary mixture and toss it until you've got it slathered with the brown sugar. Mmmmm! It might look wet, that's ok.
Come on? What does that look like? Apples! HOLY COW! Pour this into your pie crust and dot with butter. When my mother-in-love gave me the apple pie spice she also gave me a cute pie plate with the recipe for apple pie on it... I plopped my pie crust on it before snapping a picture. Oh, well. You don't get to see it today.
Again, it looks like apples!!!! I can't get over it! Also, I learned a neat pie crust trick while making this pie. It's called roll-it-out-on-wax-paper-and-peel-it-off-upside-down-so-you-don't-have-to-try-to-pick-up-your-crust-and-have-it-fall-apart-trick. Look! I learned it all by myself! Don't tell me whether or not you've done that all your pie-making life. I don't want to hear it.
Then, once you've got your top crust on you can make little designs with the left over crust... like this!
Now, the recipe I used said to put it in the oven on 400 for 40 minutes. My oven must be a monster because in about 20 minutes this thing was getting a little too crispy looking so I went ahead and took it out. Are you ready for this golden gloriousness? Yeah, I know that's not a word...
How could you NOT want to eat that?! I took it over to my friend's house and showed it to the tiniest blonde-headed boy. "Ooooo! What kind of pie is that?!" "It's... ummm... an apple pie!" "Can I have a piece!?" "That's up to mama." Supper was a rather humorous ordeal. With asparagus on his plate he exclaimed, "Why in the world would I want to eat green food?!" The tiniest of the blonde-headed boys did, finally, finish his supper of green food which earned him a slice of pie. The two other blonde-headed boys came into the kitchen and the moment of truth was fast approaching. I sliced the pie, worried that upon slicing, it would, indeed, look like zucchini and give itself away. Check this out:
"This is the BEST apple pie ever!" the tiniest blonde-headed boy announced. "I could eat the whole thing!" middle blonde-headed boy seconded. "It tastes good!" thirded the biggest blonde-headed boy. My friend and I still didn't let the cat out of the bag. We just ate our pie along with them. It was actually pretty good. I was surprised. I even packed a slice in Mister's lunch today... I hope he likes it, too! I would love to take this to a pot-luck and see what happens. It's another keeper in my armory of zucchini recipes! I'm gonna need it next year for round two of zucchini! Speaking of the garden... look what I picked today!!!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!
Oh, and, yes, before I walked out the door to go home we told them they had eaten zucchini. Heehee! "I did not just eat zucchini." said the tiniest with a look of horror on his sweet little face. "Yes, you did. You ate green food and didn't even know it."
Since I was going to visit with my teacher friend and watch some Whole Brain Teaching videos (we've become Chris Biffle junkies, just so you know. What? You don't know who that is? Well, if you call yourself any kind of teacher get your hiney on Google and look him up!). Since Mister is on evening shift and I can barely feed myself when he's gone (not because I'm incapable just, well, what's so fun about eating by yourself?!) and my friend graciously said I could crash dinner; I offered to bring over the pie. She is a foodie herself and I knew she would try it, even if just not to hurt my feelings. Heehee! She also has three precious blonde headed boys that I knew would try it too... if I lied to them. I know, that's bad.
So, let me show you the steps to making it first before I tell you how it was received:
Ingredients:
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust
2 large zucchini
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 pinch salt
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (I didn't realize until I was ready to make it that I had no cinnamon in the house-good thing my mother-in-love gave me some apple pie spice a little while ago!)
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar (what is that stuff anyway?)
1 pinch ground nutmeg
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
Peel your zucchini and cut in half lengthwise. Then, scrape out your seeds... reserve those for your chickens. My girls LOVED those seeds! The "kids", Loretta and Lynn, nibbled on the peels.
Cut your zucchini in slices like you would an apple. You can already tell it's shaping out to actually look like an apple pie! You'll end up with about four cups of sliced apples, I mean, zucchini. Toss zucchini together with the lemon juice and salt. *Side note here* After three years of marriage here's what one of my favorite skillets looks like. Can you imagine what it's going to look like after 50 years? There's going to be so many more memories wrapped up in that, a simple skillet, and I'll get to hand it down to someone I love someday. *sigh*
Ok, wipe those tears away... we're just talking about a pie, right? Now, take your zucchini mixture and put it in your favorite skillet or fry pan and cook it 'til it's crisp tender, not mushy tender. Like so:
In a separate bowl, mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon (or apple pie spice), cream of tartar, nutmeg, and flour. Add the cooked zucchini to the sugary mixture and toss it until you've got it slathered with the brown sugar. Mmmmm! It might look wet, that's ok.
Come on? What does that look like? Apples! HOLY COW! Pour this into your pie crust and dot with butter. When my mother-in-love gave me the apple pie spice she also gave me a cute pie plate with the recipe for apple pie on it... I plopped my pie crust on it before snapping a picture. Oh, well. You don't get to see it today.
Again, it looks like apples!!!! I can't get over it! Also, I learned a neat pie crust trick while making this pie. It's called roll-it-out-on-wax-paper-and-peel-it-off-upside-down-so-you-don't-have-to-try-to-pick-up-your-crust-and-have-it-fall-apart-trick. Look! I learned it all by myself! Don't tell me whether or not you've done that all your pie-making life. I don't want to hear it.
Then, once you've got your top crust on you can make little designs with the left over crust... like this!
Now, the recipe I used said to put it in the oven on 400 for 40 minutes. My oven must be a monster because in about 20 minutes this thing was getting a little too crispy looking so I went ahead and took it out. Are you ready for this golden gloriousness? Yeah, I know that's not a word...
How could you NOT want to eat that?! I took it over to my friend's house and showed it to the tiniest blonde-headed boy. "Ooooo! What kind of pie is that?!" "It's... ummm... an apple pie!" "Can I have a piece!?" "That's up to mama." Supper was a rather humorous ordeal. With asparagus on his plate he exclaimed, "Why in the world would I want to eat green food?!" The tiniest of the blonde-headed boys did, finally, finish his supper of green food which earned him a slice of pie. The two other blonde-headed boys came into the kitchen and the moment of truth was fast approaching. I sliced the pie, worried that upon slicing, it would, indeed, look like zucchini and give itself away. Check this out:
"This is the BEST apple pie ever!" the tiniest blonde-headed boy announced. "I could eat the whole thing!" middle blonde-headed boy seconded. "It tastes good!" thirded the biggest blonde-headed boy. My friend and I still didn't let the cat out of the bag. We just ate our pie along with them. It was actually pretty good. I was surprised. I even packed a slice in Mister's lunch today... I hope he likes it, too! I would love to take this to a pot-luck and see what happens. It's another keeper in my armory of zucchini recipes! I'm gonna need it next year for round two of zucchini! Speaking of the garden... look what I picked today!!!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!
Oh, and, yes, before I walked out the door to go home we told them they had eaten zucchini. Heehee! "I did not just eat zucchini." said the tiniest with a look of horror on his sweet little face. "Yes, you did. You ate green food and didn't even know it."
In : food