Flowered Apple Crumble Pie PLUS a Giveaway

It's my absolute favorite Apple Pie Recipe.  Beautiful presentation, unique flavors make this an "Above the rest" pie.  Certainly NOT your grandma's recipe...

See the glistening top.  That's a Mango reduction turned into a thick version of a mango simple syrup that gets brushed on towards the end...

And the thick almost caramel looking center is actually sweetened Almond paste mixed with a few additional surprises for a very unique crumble.

But, no matter how glowing I can describe the taste, you are naturally going to come back to the beautiful presentation of the flowered apple top.

So... Here's my photo how to...

The most time consuming part of the recipe used to be slicing the apples.  Almost as thin as you can get.  I peel and core 3-4 Granny Smith apples, cut them in half an cut thin pieces.

 I say that this used to be the most time consuming part of making the recipe because I just got a GREAT new product to review... The OXO Brand hand held Mandolin!

This made fast (and I mean FAST) work of slicing the apples thin, uniform thickness and well... Just perfect for the dish.  I have used this several times for anything from sweet potato chips to pepper rings for a perfect look to a pizza.  Here's what the OXO website has to say about their Hand Held Mandoline...

"Making cucumber salad, an apple tart or a potato gratin? Try the OXO Good Grips Hand-Held Mandoline. Use the soft knob to simply adjust to the desired slice thickness, and slide the food over the stainless steel blade for perfect, even slices. A clear surface shows slices accumulating below. Slice on a cutting board or plate, or hook the soft foot over a bowl. A food holder protects hands and covers the blade when not in use."

In short... I LOVE this and will be using it over and over!

And the good folks at OXO have even given me a second mandoline to give as a gift... but more about that at the end of the post...

Let's get back to the recipe...

OK, Apple Pie time...

Crust... Trust me when I tell you that you would be best to google someone else's pie crust recipe... Mine is still a work in progress.  So let's just skip this step (although feel free to use a store bought frozen one and follow the directions).

To make the crumble, I bought a 7 ounce tube of Almond Paste.  I sweetened it with 1 cup of powdered sugar and used a couple of TBS of corn syrup to bind everything together.

I made the crumble by putting the almond paste mixture into a food processor, adding 4 TBS brown sugar and process away until you get a nice crumbly mixture.  Spread this around the pie shell.

And now, start adding the Apple slices.  I did put the slices in some lemon water to keep them from browning.

You are forming the petals of a flower.  Stand them up on the flt side with the rounded edges sticking up and just work your way around the pie edges...

Don't worry to much about being uniform, it's the rustic look that is so appealing.

And keep going... except...

I am one of those people...

I LOVE adding cheddar cheese to my apple pies.  In this case, rather than a slice on top melted in a microwave (YUM), I added some grated cheddar inside each go around of the slices...

Also as you go around, keep pressing in on the bottom of the apples so that the slices come as close to standing up as possible.

And keep going... apples, cheddar and press all the way around several times, until you get a finished apple flower!

Sprinkle a TBS of sugar over the entire thing.

There's a step I did not photograph...

BUTTER... Butter butter butter!  This makes the crumble incredibly DELICIOUS!  DO that Meryl Streep as Julia Child impression... Butter!

Take half a stick of butter, slice it thin and spread the slices over the pie.  As the pie cooks the butter will ooze down through the apple slices and flavor the almond paste crumble!

Bake at 425 degrees for @ 35 minutes, checking to make sure the apples are getting a delightful charred edge look without it getting a painful burnt look.

While the pie is baking, make some mango flavored syrup.

And again, I forgot to take photos, but it is very easy to do...

Slice a mango, peel and cut off the pulp.  Slice, dice and mince as best you can to get small pieces.  Toss into a sautee pan and begin to cook.  Add 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup sugar and stir and cook for about 10 minutes until the mango breaks down and the syrup forms.

Last step is to run this through a food processor or blender to make it smooth and liquid.

Then, while the pie is HOT, fresh from the oven brush this on as a glaze...

I promise, nothing like your standard apple pie... Beyond delicious, memorable and a dessert highlight!

And now, as promised... the handy dandy slicer OXO HAND HELD MANDOLINE...

Can be yours for the low low price of FREE...

Just leave a comment below (be sure that I can contact you with either an email address or a blog link).  Friday this week I will do the random number thingy and pick a winner.  Sorry, but must limit this to US residents only.

Good luck to all and comment away!