It's gluten free, dairy free and low sugar...
Not to mention is easy to make and looks beautiful.
Yes, it's simple.
And that's good, right?
It might take a little longer than you think depending on your decorating skills, though.
This recipe is not vegan, but it could be if you use a flax egg and a gelatin substitute.
And before we start, a couple things..
If you didn't know, gelatin is great. It provides some protein, specifically collagen, which aids hair, skin and nail health and acts as a bulking agent in many recipes, not to mention is the one ingredient that helps your desserts set (nobody wants a liquid panna cotta right?!)...
Agar agar is similar to gelatin. It comes from algae and does not require low temperatures to set (which is great if you don't have space in your fridge).
Texture wise, they are different.
While gelatin melts in your mouth and gets destroyed easily, agar agar provides better structure and a clean slate when you spoon or cut your dessert.
And for this kind of pies gelatin would be my choice.
In this dessert, the star of the show is the fruit!
You want to be able to take a bite and savour the flavour of the fruit.
When there's a thick, chewy layer in between , texture and flavour get a little lost.
And what does gelatin or agar agar have to do with pie?
They provide structure and a shinny finish.
When making a flower out of fruit cut into fine pieces, you can imagine it would be hard to keep it together and nothing would hurt the most than seeing your flower completely destroyed after you just carefully fought to place each and every piece perfectly into the shape you wanted.
And well...
Nothing is prettier than a glossy and smooth finish.
Because this pie crust is low in sugar and gluten free, almond meal is essential for texture and flavour purposes.
Using canned peaches for this particular dessert is the way to go in my opinion, they are cheap, you can find them all year round and they are prepared for you, so they only thing left to do is slice them thinly and voilà!
Plus you get juice or syrup from the can which will also go into this recipe and you'll have left overs to drizzle over toast or pancakes or add to your smoothies.
You can go old school and get fresh peaches, score them, boil them, take the skins and pith, slice them and place them on pie.
Is up to you.
When using a dairy free yogurt you want to get something that's not too runny.
If you can get your hands on Greek style dairy free yogurt, use it.
You want a generous layer of yogurt that will support the flower.
But, you can also add some gelatin to your yogurt as well to improve its consistency.
After all you will probably make more gelatin than you need.
And if you do, you can pour it into a cup, chill it and have a snack or dessert... Just like that!
Recipe
Ingredients:
For the crust
150g almond flour or just ground almonds ( you can use oat flour as well)
200g all purpose or 1-1 gluten free flour
100g apple sauce ( if you can only get chunky applesauce, like the one I have in the picture, make sure to process it for a smooth pie crust. Yes, you can leave it as is, but it does make a difference)
1 large egg
a pinch of salt
2-3 tbsps cold water ( you can have a glass of ice water and add one tbsp at time until your dough can be formed into a small ball without disintegrating)
For the filling:
400g dairy free yogurt ( above I explained why you need a certain type and how fix its consistency)
1 gelatin pack, 12g or 4 leaves of gelatin ( you probably won't need all of it, but it's better to be safe than sorry, plus you can make anythig you want with the rest)
The juice of 1 lime
1 tsp vanilla bean extract or paste
800g of canned or preserved peaches and the juice they come with (you ideally want them with fruit juice instead of syrup)
Sweetner to taste
Directions:
Step 1: make your pie crust
In a bowl, combine gluten free flour, almond flour and salt, make a well where you place the beaten egg and half of the applesauce. Mix and add more applesauce plus 1 tbsp of cold water until you get a dough you can form into a ball. If it's still too dry, add more water and check . Remember, you can add water, but you can't take it away, so be concious. Treat this dough gently (use your hands instead of an electric mixer)
Form into a disc, wrap with plastic tightly and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
You want to blind bake this pie crust for better texture and flavour and the best way to do that is by using pie weights.
Pie weights sit on your uncooked crust and prevent it from loosing it's shape AKA the sides don't fall and stick to the bottom and you don't end up with a thick, probaly uncooked dough.
If you don't have pie weights, a good substitute is beans or rice. Keep in mind that once they're used as pie weights you won't be able to cook them. You can use those beans for future pies again, just keep them in a labelled container.
Flour slightly your work surface and roll your dough to a thinkness of 1/2 cm or less than 1/4 inch , transfer to a baking dish of your choice lined with parchment paper, and make sure the dough is well positioned, feel free to trim any excess dough and freeze for later. place more parchment on top of the dough and spread your pie weights, so the crust bakes evenly and keeps its shape.
Preheat your oven at 200 °C or 400 ºF
Once it's hot enough bake your crust with the pie weights for 20 minutes or until the sides of the pie are golden, take the pie weights out (carefully!!) and keep baking until golden brown for around 5 to 10 minutes max. (always keep an eye on it).
Let cool completely on a rack.
Step 2: Make the filling
Make the gelatin as instructed in the package, but replacing some of the water with the juice reserved form the canned or preserved peaches, add the lime juice as well and keep in a warm place (you don't want it to solidify just yet).
Separately, combine yogurt, vanilla, sweetner and if needed, add 2-3 tblps of the gelatin mixture.
Step 3: Cut your peaches
For this dessert you want to cut your peaches a certain way.
Place one of the halves with the flat side facing your cutting board and the round side facing you. Slice the fruit from end to end, having the thickest past of it in the middle. Order the slices according to their length in order to make the building process a tad easier.
Step 4: Build your pie
Fill your crust with the yogurt mixture and start placing the largest peach slices, one slightly on top of the other until you run out and start using the smaller pieces, finishig with the smallest piece. Go in one direction ( I feel it's easy to stick to clockwise aka always to the right). After the flower is finished, spoon the liquid gelatin mixture on top of it carefully ( you want to coat the flower not to cover it completely) and transfer to the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.
You can add a little decorative mint leaf for a pop of color.
.
Keep in the fridge and eat cold.
Is nice paired with coffee, but it's fantastic paired with lemonade
Enjoy!
Excellent!