Maple Miso Vegan Crabapple Pie
I’m from New England, where it’s traditional to serve a slice of cheddar cheese with your apple pie. The added bit of rich, tangy, saltiness adds another element to the sweet dessert experience. Well we’ve taken that same philosophy and improved it. This vegan crabapple pie has all the intense, sour apple flavor of crabapples, along with the tangy, funky, salty and dark, caramel notes of miso paste. Add to it the fragrant maple syrup, and you’ve got an apple pie that smells so great, I wouldn’t risk letting it cool on your windowsill. Oh, and it tastes every bit as good as it smells!
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What Makes a Crabapple?
When you think crabapple, you probably think of small, sour, wild apples. And you aren’t really wrong- crabapples are any apple variety where the fruit is less than 2 inches in diameter. Because we’ve typically domesticated apples to be larger and sweeter, crabapples tend to be wild and much sourer than the apples we are used to. Some crabapples are domesticated, and some are sweeter than others. They can be red, orange, yellow, pink, green- really any color an apple can be. Because most crabapples are wild varieties, they have more apple flavor to them. They’re probably going to be too small and sour to be ideal for snacking, but in desserts like vegan crabapple pie where you will be adding sugar anyways, the crabapple lends a great flavor that many modern apples lack. There are many, many different varieties of crabapple that grow wild, are planted for fruit or decoration, or a grown commercially. You sort of have to taste around to find the right crabapple for you, and try and taste more than just the sourness to get a grasp of the real crabapple flavor.
Disclaimer: When foraging wild plants, you are responsible to verify beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have positively identified that plant. While I take responsibility for the accuracy of the information on this site, I can not take responsibility for the identification of the plants you’ve foraged. Please consult multiple resources (books, websites, and human experts) to verify the identification of your edible plant.
I have a few tips for helping you identify crabapples- trees tend to be between 15 and 30 feet high. The leaves are oval shaped, arranged alternately, and are somewhat serrated. They are light green in the spring, darker in the summer, and change to reds and browns in the fall. The trees flower in the spring, and are usually light pink or white in color with five petals. The fruits on crabapple trees grow in clusters, and the red ones always remind me of cherries. They grow from a single stem, and on the opposite end they have brown sepals. Apples tend to ripen in the fall, usually September or October, but some varieties as early as August and others as late as November. One way to check if your crabapple tree is ripe is to cut the apple open and look at the seeds. If your crabapple is ready, the seeds will have turned brown. Unripe apple seeds will be white to green.
Looking for Vegan Apple Recipes? Try one of these!
- Vegan Apple Cinnamon Rolls from Scratch
- Two Crabapple Recipes: Crabapple Jelly and Butter
- Vegan Stuffing with Mushrooms and Apples
- Roasted Chestnut Crabapples and Kabocha Squash
- Vegan Scones with Raspberry Apple Compote
- Fennel and Apple Salad in Belgian Endive Cups
- Almond, Oat and Vegan Apple Cookies
- Easy Vegan German Apple Cake
- Easy 4-Ingredient Filo Maple Vegan Apple Tart
Mmm… Vegan Miso Recipes!
- Roasted Red Pepper Vegan Miso Mayo
- Black Radish Recipe: Miso Roasted Black Radishes
- Tomato and Garlic Vegetarian Sandwich Meat
- Easy Homemade Miso Vegan Potato Salad
- Watercress Soup with Tofu and Vegan Broth
- Delicata Rounds with Lemon and Miso Dipping Sauce
- Vegan Miso Napa Cabbage Slaw
Wanna Make Pie? Try one of these Recipes!
- Savory Mushroom Vegan Hot Water Crust Pie
- Tastes Like Chicken Pie
- Savory Kale Pie
- 20 Vegan Savory Pie Recipes (Tarts and Quiches Too!)
How to Make Vegan Crabapple Pie
All pie starts with the crust- you can use any recipe you like, or buy one premade (no shame in that at all), but I included a recipe I’ve been really enjoying lately. It’s adapted from this one by Inspired Taste, and it’s less fussy and more foolproof than most crust recipes. It’s perfectly flaky, without having large chunks of vegan butter in your dough that can make rolling the crust challenging. Instead of adding all the flour and butter and pulsing, always making sure not to overmix, you combine the vegan butter with just some of the flour, and mix it well. All that flour is coated with butter, which prevents water from activating the gluten bonds. Then you add the remaining flour, along with some water. The gluten in the second, smaller amount of flour is activated, which holds the dough together. The first batch of flour that got covered in butter remains flaky and crumbly, giving you the perfect crust every time.
Once you’ve got your crust made, use half to line a 9-inch pie pan, and the other half to form the top. I made a lattice top for my pie, and for a bit of extra decoration I added little cut out apple shapes using one of those little vegetable cutters parents use to make their kids school lunches cuter (also let’s just take a moment to mention that kid’s lunches really don’t need to be Instagram-friendly. You’re doing enough by making them lunch).
The filling is made with crabapples. My crabapples were a little smaller than a gumball- because you have to extract the core from the flesh. If you have larger crabapples you could peel your apples, but I find it a better use of my patience to leave the peels on. You get more nutritional value out of them that way anyways. Chop the apples into small pieces, and combine them with maple syrup, brown sugar, miso, and spices. After that it’s just assembly and baking.
Once your pie is done, you have to let it cool fully for the filling to set and the crust to harden. You can store your pie at room temperature for a day or two, but longer than that it should be covered well and stored in the fridge.
Maple Miso Vegan Crabapple Pie
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 cup unsalted vegan butter
- Cold water, as needed
- 4-6 cups crab apples, chopped
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 2 tbsp. light miso paste
- 1 tbsp. cornstarch
- ½ tsp. cinnamon
Instructions
- Start by making the crust. Add a cup and a half of flour to your food processor, along with the salt and sugar. Pulse to combine. Cut the vegan butter into pieces, and add to the food processor. Process into a smooth paste. And the remaining cup of flour and pulse a few times to incorporate (do not process as much as you had with the previous batch of flour). Transfer to a mixing bowl, and sprinkle with 3 tablespoons of water. Use a silicone spatula to press the water into the dough, adding more water a tablespoon at a time if needed. The dough is ready when you are able to take a small handful, push together, and it sticks. Divide the dough into two even pieces, shape them into round discs, cover in plastic wrap, and place in the fridge for at least an hour.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the maple syrup, brown sugar, miso, cornstarch and cinnamon. Mix well to break up the miso paste. Chop your apples, removing the cores. I found it easiest to cut off one side from the core, rotate 90 degrees, and cut again, repeating to cut off all four sides. I cut larger pieces in half. Put the apples in the mixing bowl with the rest of the filling ingredients, and fold so all the apples are coated.
- Preheat the oven 400°F (200°C). Take your pie crust from the fridge. On a lightly floured counter, roll out your pie crust to cover the bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie dish. Place the crust into the dish, and return it to the fridge while you prepare the top crust. Roll the second pie crust about the same size as the first. To make a lattice top, cut the crust into evenly sized strips. Remove the pie crust form the fridge, and fill with the apple filling. Place half the strips across the top of the filling, spacing them evenly so there are gaps in between. Fold every other strip back about halfway, and place a strip down the middle of the pie perpendicular to the original strips. Fold the first strips back, and fold over the other strips. Place a second strip perpendicular next to the first one. Repeat, alternating which stirps you fold back, until you’ve reached the edge. Go back and do the same process on the other side, so that you’ve covered the pie in lattice. Neaten the edges, and into the oven we go.
- Place your pie in the preheated oven, using a little foil to cover the edges to prevent burning. After 20 minutes, reduce the temperature in the oven to 350°F (175°C) and take away your foil edge protection. Bake for another 30-40 minutes, until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbly. Remove from the oven and let cool fully before serving.
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