How To Make Crustless Apple Pie

A couple of weeks ago I showed how to make whipped cream, and pointed you to Dinneen’s site for the crustless apple pie recipe.

If you’ve been waiting for the step-by-step photos I normally include, here they are.

Ingredients


4 large apples
2 tablespoons rendered bacon fat
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 – 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Topping

1 pint heavy cream
1 tablespoon sugar

Directions

Prep

If you’re making this for kids, you’ll probably want to peel the apples. Adults will like the contrast in texture, and the color looks much better. Either way, cut them into eighths and cut out the stem and seeds.

Cook

Now you can ask the question you’ve been thinking since you read the ingredients: Bacon fat? Yes, bacon fat. Butter works, but it scorches easily. If you use butter, add about a half-teaspoon of salt with the sugar.

Melt the fat over medium heat in a non-stick pan. (Cast iron would be perfect, but mine got scratched a little while ago and I didn’t notice. And it rusted. So I have to strip it and re-season it.)

Once the fat is melted, lay in enough apples to cover the bottom of the pan, then pour in the rest. You want to do the first layer carefully so the fat doesn’t splatter when you dump it all in. Then stir or toss the apples to coat them all evenly.

Add about a half teaspoon of cinnamon, just enough for a light dusting over all the apples. Plus a tablespoon of sugar, and give it another stir.


You don’t want them to be super-sweet yet. You’re going to be adding more sugar later.

Put a lid on, turn the heat down very low, and leave it covered for about 15 minutes. Stir once halfway through.

Check to see that they’re fork tender. (Make sure you let all the steam from the bottom of the lid run back into the pan. You’ll need that liquid later.) If they’re still crunchy in the middle, simmer for another five minutes at a time until they’re soft all the way through. Then taste one.

Add more cinnamon if it needs it. Then add another tablespoon of sugar and stir.

With the liquid that has come out of the apples, plus the sugar you just added, you’ve got the makings of a nice syrup. Leave the lid off, turn the heat up to medium, and stir constantly as the liquid thickens up. Don’t leave it alone, it can burn very easily.

Topping

You could just look at these next five pictures and learn enough to improve you desserts for the rest of your life. Just put one pint of heavy cream (I’m showing double this amount in the pictures) and one tablespoon of sugar in a bowl and mix on high speed until it thickens.

I tried to do this with the stand mixer, but after a couple of minutes all it was doing was splattering everywhere. So I transferred it to another bowl and started with the hand mixer.

You’ll notice it starting to gain in volume, then suddenly turns from cream to whipped cream. Don’t stop when it’s the consistency you’re used to from the stuff in the blue tub or the red can. Real cream gets much thicker than either of those.

Plating

Arrange a single layer of apples in a plate.

Add a generous scoop of whipped cream.

Spoon a little bit of the syrup over the top.

And that’s it.

Oh, and by the way … If you’re dieting, “crustless apple pie” is better than apple pie. It’s pie minus some of the carbs. It’s not just fried apples. That’s what I’m telling myself.