

It may not look great sliced, but it tastes awesome!
Fresh apples!
Do you know how to get the freshest apples?
Pick them yourself. Oh yeah!
We are lucky enough to have an apple orchard up the road a little ways that has u-pick apples. It’s about ½ hour from us. Gizdich Ranch.
Yeah, it took a while to be able to say that one right.
The season only lasts for about 4 weeks. But it is so worth it to make sure we get up there and get our apples.
This year we picked 100 pounds. Seriously! Not kidding.
And unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera. Even forgot my iPhone camera. Which is a total bummer because I had some great picture opportunities.
Like when LM was practically laying in the wagon and Hubby was pulling him up and down the isles.
Or when LMII was obsessed with picking the apples and could because no one went to the end of the end of the isles. There were tons of apples low to the ground that he could reach. And they are huge, too.
Or when LMII was covered in dirt from… well… all of the dirt.
And LM had a soccer friend show up, so they got to pick apples (and strawberries) together.
It’s just so much fun. And so many apples.
We have gone the last two years. And the last two years, mother nature has thrown us a curveball. We are moving along. Eating our apples. And about two weeks after we get them, bam! Crazy heat wave. Like around 95F degrees in the house, heat wave. With no freakin’ wind, heat wave.
Well, the apples do not like the heat once they’ve been picked. The like cool, dry places. We have the dry. But not the cool. They are going fast.
So, I am trying to come up with lots of apple recipes. The first apple thing I thought of making when got home with all of those awesome apples is an apple pie recipe. But this apple pie recipe needed to be
- gluten free
- dairy free
- vegan
- egg free
Really I didn’t need it to be vegan, but since I do need egg free and mostly dairy free, it ends up being vegan.
Anyway, I had to work out a gluten free crust, but it only took me two tries to get it. When I first was looking up how to make a pie crust, I could have sworn I never saw anything about greasing the pie pan. Uhhhhhhhhh, yeah that was wrong.
I didn’t grease it the first try. Uhhhhhhhhh, yeah that was wrong.
The pie filling was awesome. The pie crust? Well, when we dug out our chisel from the toolbox, we could get some of the crust out.
Note – Always grease a pan pan before making the crust. Just sayin’.
So, next try, I greased the pie pan and made the crust. Then the pie. So, so, sooooooooo yummy!
Yes, it was.
BTW, my pants are still tight.


Pie Crust Recipe (Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Vegan)
- Total Time: 15 mins
- Yield: 1 pie crust 1x
Ingredients
- 2 cups Almond Flour – packed
- pinch salt
- 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 3 tbs Maple Syrup
- 1/3 cup Coconut Butter
- 3 tbs Coconut Oil
Instructions
- Add almond flour, salt and baking soda to a food processor and pulse a few times.
- Add coconut butter, coconut oil and maple syrup. Pulse again until mixed well.
- Spray cooking spray in a 9.5 inch pie pan to grease.
- Shape crust mixture in the pan.
- Bake at 350 for 5 minutes until lightly brown.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 5 mins


Apple Pie Recipe (Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Vegan)
- Total Time: 45 mins
- Yield: 12 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 8 cups Pippin Apples (sliced) (see notes on Pippens)
- 1/4 cup Coconut Oil
- 4 tbs sugar
- 1 tbs cinnamon
- 1 tsp cardamom
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
- Mix apples, coconut oil, sugar, cinnamon and cardamom together.
- Pour into lightly cooked pie crust.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
Notes
The reason I use Pippen apples, besides the fact that are awesomely colored, is that since it is a crisp apple and originally grown as a dessert apple, it makes a great pie. It doesn’t mush. Oddly, though, it is mostly used to make cider these days. Bummer!
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
This looks absolutely AMAZING, and I’m glad it also doesn’t look that difficult to make. 🙂
Hi Suzanne,
Thank you! I really appreciate that. It was really easy. I was surprised. At first I tried to make it harder. but the more I simplified it, the better it worked.
~Tia