MADE: Apple Pepper Pie

A while back, I was chatting with my dear friend over at Kitchen Wishes about pies, and we came across an article on chefs and their pie recipes. One chef, in a throwaway comment, mentioned a green chili-apple pie. I was wildly intrigued, and haven't really stopped thinking about it since.

Well, today was the day I stopped thinking and started doing.

At the farmer's market a while back, I bought a delightful concoction from Woodring's, who specialize in delightful concoctions. This particular one was raspberry pepper jelly, and I was hooked after a sample taste. It's spicy and sweet, and the heat of the peppers doesn't overwhelm their great flavor, or that of the raspberry. I didn't know exactly what I'd do with the jelly, but I had to buy it. Turns out, what I'd do with it is make vaguely unorthodox apple pie. (Also, it's great on toast, especially toast that's getting dipped in soup. And on grilled cheese--WOW is it good on grilled cheese...but anyway--back to the pie.)

The two thoughts--"Need to concoct a recipe for apple-chili pie" and "Need to find a recipe in which to use heaping dollops of raspberry pepper jelly"--combined to form a superthought, fusing into a dynamo of culinary potential energy that, finally, couldn't be ignored. I bought some apples.

Pastry for double crust pie:

2 heaping cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
Pinch chili powder
Pinch cinnamon
1 1/3 sticks butter, chilled and cut into chunks
1/2 cup ice water

Mix together flour, salt, and spices. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add water 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing together after each tablespoon, until mixture forms a ball. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate 4 hours, or overnight.

Filling:

3 or 4 large cooking apples, peeled and cut into skinny chunks (This could probably be more, although the apples I used were very large indeed. Also, I used galas, which aren't really ideal cooking apples, but they're delicious, and they go well with the peppers.)
2 tbsp lemon juice
2/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3 tbsp Woodring's Raspberry Pepper Jelly
1 tbsp butter
1 large egg yolk, beaten
Pinch chili powder

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Coat the apple chunks in lemon juice. Mix together sugars, flour, and spices and toss apples to coat. Add 1 1/2 tbsp of the pepper jelly to the apple mixture and toss some more. Bring out the crust dough, divide into two, and roll both out into slightly-larger-than-9-inch rounds. Fill a 9-inch pie pan with one of the crusts. Spread the remaining 1 1/2 tbsp of pepper jelly over the bottom of the crust, then pour apple mixture into crust. Cover with the second crust, and pinch together the edges. Cut vents in the top crust, and brush with beaten egg yolk. Sprinkle a tiny bit of chili powder and some cinnamon or brown sugar over the top of the crust.
Bake pie at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and continue to bake for 40-45 minutes more, until the crust is beginning to brown and the apples inside are bubbly. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream!

Note: It occurs to me that people might think "Well geeeeeez, BlissandTell, thanks for a recipe with an exciting ingredient that I definitely don't have." My suggestion would be to make a paste out of green chilis, water, and sugar, or green chilis and raspberry jam. Probably a tablespoon of chilis and two of jam, or a tablespoon of chilis, one of water, one-half of sugar. But that's just a guesstimate. If anyone tries and it turns out great (or horrible), let me know!