I’m happy to report that I’ve been quite successful in doing this! This will take a little concentration (to make the caramel — an invaluable skill, if you ask me), but I promise it’ll be well worth the bit of effort. Serve it slightly warm with vanilla ice-cream on top. Or you could just eat it out of the pie plate — it’s delicious any which way! This is a huge crowd pleaser!
Ingredients:
Crust and Topping
- 3 1/2 cups pretzels
- 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted, melted butter
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
Filling
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 c corn syrup
- 1/2 half and half
- 2 tab sour cream
- 1 tea vanilla
- 1 tea cinnamon
- 4 cups peeled, cored, and thinly sliced apples (about 3 large apples)
Preparation:
Serves 12
Total Prep and Cooking Time: 35 minutes
To make the crust, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Use a food processor to finely grind the pretzels. Pour the crumbs into a medium mixing bowl and combine with the sugar and melted butter. Remove 1/2 cup and set aside to use as a topping later. Gently press the remaining pretzel mixture into a 9 1/2-inch pie plate. Bake for 5 minutes in the preheated oven and then set aside to cool.
To make the the filling, add 1/2 cup of water to a small saucepan with the sugar and corn syrup. Cook the mixture over medium-low heat, occasionally swirling the pan, until you have a dark amber caramel, about 20 minutes. (Please be patient and careful, it will eventually become darker — do not turn the heat up to speed up the process.) Turn off the heat and carefully mix in the butter, half and half, and sour cream. (The mixture will hiss and bubble up; that’s good and what it should do. Stand back!) Once the mixture settles down, pour it into a large mixing bowl and add the vanilla, cinnamon, and apples. Mix to combine and carefully pour it into the prepared pretzel crust.
Place the pie plate on a baking dish and put it under the broiler, just long enough to brown the top, about 30 seconds. Let it set for at least 30 minutes before serving, and for a firmer texture, place in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.
An additional note:
As always, I like to provide a gluten-free option for those who need it. Glutino makes gluten-free pretzels (which are quite good), and they are available at Whole Foods.
