Nutty Fruity Pie

Dutch Apple pie, but without apples. Also know as Nutty Fruity Pie

In Holland we love to eat Apple pie. Probably everybody loves to eat a good Apple pie. Once I visited Canada and had the most delicious warm Apple pie with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. It’s been more than 20 years ago, but I can still taste it.

Coming to live in Thailand we had to make Apple pie for our Thai friends, because she had never tasted it. She wanted to learn how to make it by herself. Now the Dutch Apple pie has moved to Thailand too. This is a family recipe.

In Thailand we have apples; granny smith, golden delicious, yellow apple and a pear like apple called Sali. It’s a fresh and moist apple-pear. This one we had in the house when I wanted to bake Apple pie.

I promised Peter not to bake sweet things for a while, because we are watching our growing bodies. But, the urge to bake was too big. And I thought of something healthy. Apple pie is healthy, isn’t it?

So, when I started to collect all ingredients I discovered Sali apple was not the best apple for this pie. But, what about a healthy Apple pie without apple? We bought healthy nuts and dried fruits last couple of weeks. And these were all waiting to be good filling for a loaf of bread.

Still wanting healthy and delicious; so I went for a Nutty Fruity Pie.

The house smelled like an advertisement for country cooking. When the pie finally cooled enough we could taste it. And it is great! It’s full of crunchy nuts with the fresh bites of dried little orange and lemon peel and the sweetness from the raisins, dates and prunes. The crust, most important with Apple pie, is thick and crusty and the inside is soft and a little moist.  

The recipe calls for an Ø24 cm baking pan, but we like a thick and crunchy crust of the pie.  I choose a smaller size baking pan. If you are interested in the Dutch Apple pie; replace the nuts and dried fruit for 4 Apple pie apples (in Dutch: Goudreinet). Use a lightly sour apple. And drizzle lemon juice over the apples.

This is what I use for 1 small pie Ø22 cm:

300 gr all purpose flour
180 gr salted butter directly from the refrigerator and cut into small cubes
150 gr brown sugar (I used 50 gr dark packed sugar and 100 gr white sugar)
1 egg, whisked
1 pinch of salt
100 gr raisins

50 gr Nuts: hazelnuts, walnuts, whole almonds (unpeeled)

50 gr Dried fruit: prunes, dates, little oranges, lemon peel
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon icing sugar

This is what I did: Pre heat the oven to 200˚C.

Put the flour, sugar(s), salt and half of the egg in a bowl. Add the colt butter cubs with two knives and mix till the dough is crumbly.

Take 2/3 of the dough and push it firmly in the lightly buttered and floured baking pan 2 cm of the top free of dough.

Roll the remaining 1/3 of dough until it fits the top of the baking pan.

Put all the nuts and fruits, cut into small chunks, on top of the dough. Mix with icing sugar and cinnamon.

Place the remaining 1/3 of dough op top. Mine broke and I liked it, it gave a nice effect. If you like you can make a diamond shape on top; make slices of the dough and place them like a diamond.

Brush the remaining egg on top of the dough.

Place the form in the oven until the top is nicely brown. This takes around 50 – 60 minutes.

Cool on wire rack. You can add whipped cream or ice cream, but we ate it as it is. It tasted great!

This Pie goes to Cathy, she organizes Bake Your Own Bread.  Have a look to see what we baked last month.