Pie is a dish made of crispy and flavored dough and some juicy aromatic filling. There are different types of pies both sweet and salty. One of the most popular types is the apple pie. I decided to make a healthier variation of that pie and I didn’t use any refined sugar and white flour in this recipe.

SPELT

In this recipe I used whole-grain spelt flour. Spelt is a crop used since the ancient times. Later it is moved aside by wheat because it could not be artificially fertilized and this doesn’t allow high yields. The bran of the spelt grain is stronger and this prevents it from peeling and absorbing heavy metals.

Spelt contains higher percentage of proteins than wheat and great amount of fibers, minerals and vitamins. It contains gluten with different structure than the gluten in wheat which makes it easier to absorb. This makes the spelt more suitable for people who avoid gluten foods.

Mini apple pies
Mini apple pies

Why choose whole-grain flour?

The main difference between whole-grain flour and white flour is in the way wheat is being processed. Every grain has bran, endosperm and a germ (embryo).

Whole-grain flour is made by milling the whole wheat grain.

  • The bran contains a lot of vitamins, minerals, proteins, fibers, iron, copper, zinc, selenium and magnesium
  • The middle layer of the grain is called endosperm and contains great quantity of carbohydrates and little vitamins
  • The germ contains vitamins of the B group, proteins, minerals and healthy fats

During white flour processing the bran and the germ of the grain are removed. The endosperm is the only thing that remains in white flour we are buying and it contains almost none healthy substances.

Apple mini pies
Apple mini pies

Not only these mini pies contain wonderful whole-grain spelt flour but they have only 50 g of brown sugar in the filling and 3 tablespoons in the dough. The rest of the products are not many and let’s go for them.

INGREDIENTS FOR APPLE PIE

Pie dough

  • 380 g whole-grain spelt flour
  • 3 tbsp brown sugar (you may use coconut sugar as well)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 230 g cold cubed butter
  • 4 tbsp ice water

For the filling

  • 4 middle-sized apples
  • 50 g brown sugar (you may use coconut sugar as well)
  • Juice of ½ lemon
  • 3 tbsp corn farina
  • 1 tsp cinnamon powder
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
APPLE PIE
APPLE PIE

INSTRUCTIONS FOR APPLE PIE

Before I start with the instructions I’d like to say that if you don’t have enough time for mini pies with these products you could make one big pie and cut it into pieces after baking. Making pies’ tops takes time and they are 12 in number.

I used my kitchen robot for the dough but you may also knead it with hands.

Sift the flour and put the cold butter cubes, the sugar and the salt and rub between your fingers until you have crumbs. Add the water and form a ball. It is important to knead the dough as little as possible so that you don’t warm up the butter too much.

  • If you use a robot just put all the ingredients inside and pulse several times.
  • Empty the robot on the worktop and form a ball.
  • Wrap the ball in cling film and put it in the refrigerator.
Pie dough
Pie dough
  • Peel the apples, remove the core with the seeds and dice them. The clean amount of apples should be about 350 g.
Pie apples
Pie apples
  • Put the lemon juice, vanilla, sugar, corn farina and cinnamon in the bowl with the apples and mix them.
  • Take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll out a part of it
  • Form circles and put them in the muffin tray as shown in the photo
  • Fill the little baskets with the apple mixture, about 2 tablespoons for each basket.  Portion out all of the mixture.
  • For the pies’ tops you need to roll out the rest of the dough and cut it into strips.
  • Weave the strips as shown below and cut a circle as big as the mini pie. Continue until you cover all the pies
  • You can make simple round tops for your pies if you want to, just by rolling out the dough and cutting only circles. Don’t forget to make a cross in the middle so that some of the the wonderful apple juice can come out.
  • Bake in preheated oven at 170°C for about 30-40 minutes or until golden.
  • Let the pies cool for some time and take them out of the tray.

Don’t forget that I’ll be glad if you tag me in your apple pies photos on Instagram.