Apple Pie with Olive-Oil Crust--Vegan Version

In recent years, more than ever before, people follow all kinds of fashion diets and submit themselves to different dietary restrictions. Unfortunately, because of that it becomes increasingly challenging to respect everyone's dietary preferences. For instance, it is surprisingly difficult to offer a really tasty and elegant dessert that would follow strictly vegan dietary rules. So today I would like to share an apple pie recipe that happened to be vegan and which seemed to me very simple and interesting, even if you are not a vegan.

I got this vegan pie recipe from my neighbor's mother who has been a vegan all her life. I find a traditional butter pie perfectly tasty but when I heard about this olive oil crust I thought that maybe it was healthier than the butter crust. Then I got surprised how delicate and sandy this crust was. A delicate taste of olive oil was also detectable in the pie's taste. I used golden delicious apples for this recipe and added just a little bit of sugar since they have natural sweetness. If you use sour cooking apples you need to add more sugar (about half a cup) to this, according to taste. A handful of walnuts enriched this pie in additional nutrients.



Apple Pie with Olive-Oil Crust

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour,
1/2–3/4 cup olive oil,
3–4 tbsp icy cold water,
a pinch of salt,
4 golden delicious apples,
1/4 cup sugar,
1/4 cup chopped walnuts.

Preparation
1. Place flour and salt in a food processor. With the engine running slowly pour in half a cup of olive oil. If the dough is too dense add an extra 1/4 cup. When crumbles are formed add 3–4 tbsp cold of water and run the processor until a smooth dough forms. Turn it off quickly at that point.
2. Wrap the dough in a plastic foil and cool in a refrigerator for an hour.
3. Preheat oven to 375 F.
4. Divide the dough into 2 portion with one slightly bigger than the other. Roll each of them on a working surface dusted with flour.
5. Transfer the bigger disk into a 9-inch bottom pie dish and spread the edge of it on the walls.
6. Peel off the apples and grate them on a grater with big holes. Add sugar and mix well with apples. Fold in walnuts and transfer the filling into the baking dish.



7. Cover the pie with a smaller disk and using a fork or fingers seal the edges of both disks together. Using a fork make holes in the top of the pie so the moisture can evaporate during baking.
8. Bake for about 50 minutes, unit light gold.