Lightened Up – Magic Apple Pie

Growing up my grandmother’s Magic Apple Pie (recipe here) was a staple a few times during the year. I admit, that recipe is delicious while also near-and-dear to my heart … but sometimes the sheer sweetness of it gets me. So with trying to lighten it up I conjured up the following recipe. I had recreated this recipe last year using Splenda instead of sugar and I truthfully wasn’t a huge fan of it. So I opted to recreate it using regular ingredients, just less of them while swapping a few things out.

This pie is good and tasty – but it’s not very sweet. The recipe could be adjusted to incorporate more sugar into it – but I found it to be pleasing on the palette as is. Since I used McIntosh apples they provided a nice sweetness so it wasn’t tart. But if you use something like a granny smith I’d suggest tweaking the sugar to subdue the tart.

Serves 8. 5 Points Plus Values.

• 1 lb peeled sliced apples (I use McIntosh or Cortland)
• 1 cup flour
• ½ cup fat free egg substitute
• 4 tbsp margarine, melted
• 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
• ¼ cup sugar
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup walnuts, chopped
• 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
• 3 tbsp water

Toss peeled, sliced apples with roughly 3 tablespoons of sugar and cinnamon. Toss to coat then pile apples into a pie or cake pan.

Add flour in with leftover sugar/cinnamon mixture from tossed apples and add in remaining sugar, brown sugar, margarine, water and egg substitute and mix until well combined and blended together. The batter will be very, very thick.

Fold in walnuts until well combined, then pour mixture over the apples.

Bake for 1 to 1 hour and 15 minutes.  Pie is done when top is golden brown and the crust has hardened a bit. The pie is done when the apples aren’t watery (you should be able to tell, it’ll bubble up a bit around the crust).