Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Norwegian Apple Pie

Thanksgiving and Apple Pie, that is about as American as it gets. 
Well, on my mother's side of the family no one came over on the Mayflower or celebrated the early and traditional Thanksgiving meals. We are Scandinavian- Norwegian and Finnish, so Apple pie is a type of kake (no, not cake) and does not have a crust. 
So the "american version" would be a crustless pie (and would use cinnamon instead of cardamom)

Norwegian Apple Pie

2 egg whites
C Sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1tsp baking Pdr
1/2 C flour
1 C apples diced (smaller the better)
sprinkle or two cardamom

Preheat your oven to 350 and spray an 8" cake pan/pie pan with cooking spray. (I use glass)



This handy dandy thing is an egg separator. I like it because it gets most of the white off the yolk with no bits of shell in it.
No idea where I got it from, I probably stole it from my step mom when I moved to Austin! 
(Thanks Suzanne)


Beat the egg whites, sugar and vanilla until mixed.
Add the baking powder and beat until fluffy. 




This makes the top "crust" of the pie, so you take your time with the eggs, but we are not making a meringue (Although that does sound good right now, probably due to being pregnant at Thanksgiving)



Beat in the flour until blended and smooth. I would think you don't want to overbeat the flour and activate too much of the gluten, but I am not a chef, so who knows!
Sprinkle in the Cardamom before you add the apples. I used less than 1tsp because it is super strong stuff- and a Norwegian dessert spice go to. You can't have Norwegian Desserts with no Cardamom.


Add 1 C diced apples.
Make sure you DICE not SLICE
How Un American!


Any apple will do, I had Fuji because they were on sale and are a staple apple at our house. 

The next batch I am making with Washington Reds, so I'll compare. 
 When my mom made apple pies, she always made two, one with the reds and one with the granny smiths, I figured the Fuji would be a combo of the two.
  
Bake for 30 minutes. The pie will puff up while cooking and settle when it cools.
I guess I didn't take a picture of the batter, but it is really thick, similar to a cake when you put it in the pan. Lily asked "Mom- are you making cake?


The hard part is waiting until it cools to eat it, but you HAVE TO! I promise it will be worth the wait. Go put it on a window will and forget about it. 
(Because it is easy to forget about pie when your entire house smells like it)




Traditionally Norwegians top this with a goat cheese. Well, we didn't have any lying around, but I could have used yogurt, or what the heck, a big dollop of Whipped Cream.
NOT Cool Whip, you gotta go for the real deal there.



 The pie is fairly thin, maybe a bit over 1", so I am going to try to double the recipe and see if I still get the same crunch. 



Yes, that is what was left after dinner!


My friend who is a chef got the first one I made. She was thinking of how to "Americanize it"
I suppose if you don't have Scandinavian tastes buds, you could use cinnamon and brown sugar.
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