Gooey, sweet and deliciously-spiced paleo apple pie filling tucked inside a buttery, flakey almond flour pie crust. Minus the butter, it’s made entirely with paleo-friendly ingredients!
🍎Paleo Apple Pie🍏
A few key things I think you’ll LOVE about this recipe:
- Pre-Cooked Filling: An extra step that is easily worth it for a richer flavor and saucier filling. No need to worry about a soggy bottom crust!
- Less Sugar: The twice-cooked apples get plenty of time to mingle and marinate in sugar and spice with way less sweetener needed than your typical apple pie recipe.
- Flakey Almond Flour Crust: Simple, buttery, flakey and gluten free!
Apple Pie Filling
- Apple Prep: Peel, core and dice.
- Combine: Add apples, lemon, spice and sugar to a large pan.
- Sauté: Cook over a medium-high heat to soften apples and cook/reduce juices.
- Starch: Add starch/flour to help thicken the juices.
- Strain: Remove apples from pan and strain to separate from juices.
- Cook Juices: Continue cooking the apple juices to form a thick sauce + more caramelized flavor.
- Combine & Cool: Combine thickened juice and apples, then cool completely.
Almond Flour Crust Steps
- Dry ingredients: whisk almond flour, arrowroot starch and salt.
- Butter: Cut in small pieces of cold butter using a fork or pastry cutter.
- Wet ingredients: Whisk egg, egg white and maple syrup then add to flour.
- Form Dough: Mix until a soft dough forms.
- Chill: Divide into two pieces, cover in plastic wrap then chill in fridge.
Assemble & Bake
- Bottom Crust: Roll out bottom crust then press into pie pan.
- Filling: Add the cooled filling to the dough.
- Top Crust: Roll top crust into large circle then cut into strips.
- Easy Lattice Crust: Lay half the strips over the filling evenly spaced out then lay the remaining dough strips over the top at and angle to create a criss-cross patter.
- Crimp & Brush: Fold and seal the edges together as you like then brush with the egg wash.
- Bake: Bake at a high heat (400°C/200°C) for 20 minutes then reduce temp (350°F/175°C) and bake another 50 ish minutes until cooked through.
Final Tips & Things to Know
- Apples: What type?
- This recipe has much less sugar than more traditional apple pie recipes so use a mix of apples that are sweet and tart.
- Sugar: More Options
- If you don’t need this recipe to be refined sugar free, feel free to use white sugar or brown sugar instead of coconut sugar.
- Pie Crust: Nut Free + Non Grain Free Options
- For a nut free (almost) paleo pie crust, try my cassava flour pie crust instead of the almond flour one here.
- Try my Flaky Gluten Free Pie Crust for a more classic pie crust option.
Hungry for More?
More gluten free apple desserts to try:
- Gluten Free Apple Fritters
- Gluten Free Apple Crisp Recipe (Vegan Option)
- Baked Cinnamon Apples
- Gluten Free Apple Crumble Bars
- Grain Free Apple & Blackberry Crumble
Pies to Share this Holiday Season
- Gluten Free Sweet Potato Pie (Dairy Free)
- Paleo Pumpkin Pie
- Gluten Free Pecan Pie (Paleo!)
- Paleo Vegan Pecan Pie Bars
- Chocolate Mousse Pretzel Crust Pie
Enjoy!
Let me know if you try this Paleo Apple Pie recipe! Leave a comment and review with your thoughts. I always appreciate the feedback and serving suggestions that you come up with!
Recipe
Almost Paleo Apple Pie (Grain Free)
Yield:
9-inch pie
Prep Time:
1 hour
Cook Time:
1 hour 15 minutes
Additional Time:
2 hours
Total Time:
4 hours 15 minutes
Warm spices and juicy apples simmered and softened in a delicious apple filling then baked in a buttery almond flour crust!
Ingredients
Filling
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil or unsalted butter
- 3 pounds apples peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 2/3 cup coconut sugar or light brown sugar (150g)
- 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 teaspoon tapioca starch or arrowroot starch
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup (optional)
Crust
- 2 cups almond flour (190g)
- 1 cup tapioca starch or arrowroot starch (120g)
- 2/3 cup cold butter, or palm oil shortening, cold and cut or broken into pieces (150g)
- 2 teaspoons coconut sugar or maple syrup
- 1 large egg + 1 egg white whisked together (save the yolk for the egg wash)
- Egg wash: 1 egg yolk + 1 teaspoon water mixed together
Need help converting to weights? Check out my cups to grams Conversion Guide.
Instructions
Filling
- Melt oil/ butter in a large, deep skillet over a medium-high heat. Add apples, lemon juice, zest, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar. Mix together.
- Cook about 5 minutes uncovered then cover with a fitted lid and cook another 5 minutes. Sprinkle starch over the apples then cook another 1-2 minutes. The apples should be softer, but still maintain their shape.
- Place a large mesh strainer over a large bowl. Pour the apple mixture into the strainer separating the apples from their juices. Pour the juices back into the skillet and add the apples to the bowl
- Add vanilla extract and maple (if using) to the juices and cook the juices over a medium-high heat for about 5 minutes. The juices should bubble up and thicken into a saucy glaze.
- Pour the reduced juices over the apples and mix together well. Cover and set aside until cool while you make the crust.
Crust
- Add the almond flour, starch and salt to a large mixing bowl. Whisk together.
- Add the chilled butter. Use a fork or pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour to form a sandy mixture with pea-sized chunks of butter still intact throughout.
- Add the coconut sugar (or maple syrup) and whisked egg + egg white. Stir into the flour to form a soft dough.
- Divide pie dough into two parts. Make one part slightly bigger than the other to make the top crust (small portion) and bottom crust (big portion). Form each section into a round disc, then cover in plastic wrap and chill at least 20 minutes or overnight.
Assemble & Bake
- Preheat to 400°C (200°C).
- Roll the larger portion of dough out on a large, well-floured piece of parchment paper until it's at least 12 inches in diameter. Carefully transfer to a 9 inch pie plate. Press into the sides and bottom of the dish. Leave the excess dough hanging over the sides for now. Cover, return to the fridge and chill.
- Add the cooled filling to the pie dish. Cover and refrigerate while you prepare the top crust.
- Re-flour your surface and tools as needed. Roll the dough out again into a circular shape (about 10-inches wide). Use a pizza cutter or sharp knife to cut the dough into 10 long strips (about 1-inch wide).
- Carefully place 5 strips of dough, side-by side over the filling. Leave a gap (about 1-inch) in between each strip. Place the remaining strips of dough across the top of the other strips to make a criss-cross pattern.
- Press the top crust into the bottom to seal together. Crimp with a fork or use your fingers to flute the edges. Brush the egg wash over the dough. Try to avoid brushing the filling.
- Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes then reduce the oven temperature to 350° (175°C) and bake another 50-55 minutes. Rotate in the oven every so often. Check the oven after about 30 minutes - if the crust/edges starts to get too brown, add a pie shield around the sides or place a big piece of foil over the top. The filling should be bubbly and the apples soft if you poke them with a fork or knife.
- Remove from oven and place on a wire rack. Let cool at least 1 hour before slicing and serving.
- Cover and store pie at room temperature 1 day or in the fridge up to 5 days.
Notes
- What type of apples: I recommend a mix of sweet and tart like granny smith apples, honeycrisp apples, pink lady, etc.
- Make sure the filling cools down completely before adding it to the pan. If it's hot, it will melt the butter/fat in the dough which will lead to a soggy bottom crust.
- Instead of a lattice-like top crust you can leave the dough unsliced. Just make sure to cut a few slits over the top of crust to allow stream to escape while baking.
- Internal Temp: If you want to be precise check the filling temperature with an instant read thermometer. Apple pie filling should be about 190-200°F (90-93°C) when done.
- Make it Dairy Free: Use coconut oil in the filling and palm oil in the crust to make it paleo. If you don't need to keep this strictly paleo then I recommend you use cold vegan butter (in block form, not a spreadable vegan butter). I don't recommend coconut oil as the oil fat in the crust - it will be much more breakable.
- Feel free to use your favorite gluten-free pie crust in place of the one listed here.
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
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