Sugarless Apple Pie

I've never been much of a sweet tooth. Even as a kid, I had no problem passing up dessert. My holiday candy would sit around for months with me eating a piece here and there, while my brothers wolfed their's down in two day. It's true that I'm a girl who isn't very fond of chocolate (except I do like dark chocolate because it's bitter), and I only eat cake at special occasions. I suppose when it comes to eating healthy this is a good thing but everyone has an Achilles heel. Mine is pie. I love pie, and I love to bake pies. This, I believe, is one of the contributing factors to my recent weight gain.

Yesterday my dad came up from our basement with apples that were starting to go bad. And what better to do with slightly mushy apples than bake them into a pie, right? So, my mom and I put our heads together to come up with ways to try to cut the calories that went into the pie.

First, I made an olive oil pastry crust instead of a standard pastry crust. By using olive oil, not only do you cut some of those unwanted calories but it is also healthier for you than vegetable shortening. The oil pastry was harder to work with than the standard pastry, so it didn't turn out as pretty as my pies normally do, but in the end it did taste good. Although it was not as flaky as a standard crust. It is pretty easy to find oil pastry recipes, I used the one in the Betty Crocker cookbook.

For the filling, I replaced the sugar with apple juice. This actually worked better than I expected. The pie obviously is not as sweet as a standard apple pie but it did have a very rich apple flavor which I rather liked. I will include the recipe below.

After crunching some numbers, I estimated that you save yourself approximately 110 calories per serving by baking this pie instead of a standard apple pie. This is based on a 10 inch pie divided into 10 slices.

Ingredients (This is for a 10 inch pie.)

1 (12 oz.) can of frozen apple juice concentrate

3 Tbsp. cornstarch

1 tsp. coriander

1 tsp. cinnamon

pinch of salt

8 cups of sliced apples

Combine juice, cornstarch, coriander, cinnamon, and salt into a pan. Heat until thick. Add sliced apples and simmer until partially cooked. Pour into an unbaked pie shell and cover with top crust. Bake at 350 for 45 min.