Raifort Apple Pie (Apple Horseradish Pie) |
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Prep Time: 60 Minutes Cook Time: 45 Minutes |
Ready In: 105 Minutes Servings: 8 |
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Up-front warning: This pie is apparently not for everyone. I've loved the flavor of apples and horseradish together since I was in junior high, when I experienced a totally sublime horseradish applesauce served warm as a side dish in a German restaurant. For about the last year, I've been developing this recipe for an apple horseradish pie, and it's at the point where I think it's ready. So I entered it in an apple pie baking contest, and it came in 6th place out of 7. The judges didn't like it. But a lot of people told me on the side that they tasted it and they really liked it a lot. A polarizing recipe, I guess... you're either going to love it or hate it. :-) Several people, after tasting it, have described it to me as, a pretty normal apple pie, but with an unusual spice combination that you don't expect. The tricky thing about the horseradish in this recipe is that you REALLY can't use a prepared horseradish from the store. Prepared horseradish is made with vinegar, and one of the first things I learned in my experiements is that the vinegar is out of place in an apple pie. Instead, you should prepare your own horseradish, and use lemon juice instead of vinegar. Then it works in apple pie. My kids really love this recipe, so I think it's good enough to post now. Hopefully it will keep being improved over the years! Ingredients:
10 cups tart apples, peeled and sliced (granny smith, approx. 5 large apples) |
2/3 cup brown sugar |
3/8 cup white sugar |
3 tablespoons all-purpose white flour |
1 1/8 teaspoons ground cinnamon |
1/2 teaspoon salt |
1/8 teaspoon salt |
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg |
1 tablespoon freshly-squeezed lemon juice |
4 1/2 tablespoons freshly grated horseradish root (prepared with lemon juice, see directions) |
1 pastry for double-crust pie (store-bought or your favorite recipe) |
Directions:
1. To prepare the fresh horseradish -
2. Wash and peel a 2-inch length of a horseradish root as you would a potato and dice it into small cubes.
3. In a blender jar, place enough of the cubed horseradish to cover the blades of the blender.
4. Cover the cubed horseradish with cold water, and add several crushed ice cubes.
5. Cover and blend, stopping to scrape down the sides of the jar and add more of the cubed horseradish, until you have it all blended. If necessary, add more water or crushed ice to keep it cold and moist enough to complete the grinding.
6. When the mixture reaches the desired potency, usually after about 3 minutes, add freshly-squeezed lemon juice to stop the enzymatic reaction in the root. Use about 2 tablespoons of lemon juice for each cup of grated horseradish.
7. Refrigerate the prepared horseradish in an airtight container until ready to use.
8. To prepare the Raifort Apple Pie -
9. Preheat oven to 425'F.
10. In a large bowl, stir together all the ingredients for the filling, including the 4-1/2 tablespoons of horseradish.
11. Place one pie crust on the bottom of a 9” pie pan, pour the filling in, and top with the second crust, crimping the edges.
12. Cut several slits in the top crust to allow steam to escape.
13. Place the pie in the oven on the bottom-most rack and immediately reduce the temperature to 400'F.
14. Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until apples are tender and crust is golden brown.
15. It may help to cover the edges of the crust with tinfoil after 15-20 minutes to help keep them from over-browning.
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