Hey guys! It’s Fall!

Time to break out all your super cute sweaters (your sweaters are so super cute!) and your big old boots (you are so on trend!) and your hayride dreams (you probably got bugs in your pants from that hayride last year and brought them home with you but this year will be different!) and your recipes that just scream “I’m relaxing in my kitchen, wearing an asymmetrical loosely knit sweater that provides absolutely no warmth and it’s see-through and my you-know-whats are just right out there but that’s not as bad as the bug bites that itch inside my big old boots that are so. on. trend.” Those recipes.

Whew. So that was definitely a sentence. But it’s called “painting a picture” and what you’re doing is called “loving it.”

On my quest for one of those aforementioned recipes, I went Urban Apple Picking at the Union Square Green Market. It’s the classic move where you buy some apples from some guys underneath a tarp tent who tell you they picked the apples earlier that day from their backyard or something equally charming and then you have the option of dropping by Forever 21 afterwards. And since I’ve been wanting to make a raw apple pie for awhile now (my life has been pie-less for entirely too long and don’t make me remind you what season it is again), I was able to rejoice in finally having the right season, the right day off, and the right apples – a delicious hybrid called Jonagolds – to get the job done.

So go on and gather your apples and shine them up on your cute sweater because you’re adorable and let’s make some raw pie!

RAW APPLE PIE

serves 8

Inspired by this photo from Rawified. I pinned this about 5 months ago and never got around to reading the recipe. Even today. And that’s not even the laziest thing I’ve said all day.

Ingredients:

FILLING

3 apples, thinly sliced (you can also use a mandoline if you have one) to make about 500g of apple slices

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoons + 1 tsp agave

8 packets of Truvia (translates to 1/3 cup white sugar) + 1 optional packet for later

30g brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

25g raisins

15g walnuts, broken up

CRUST

42g wheat germ

16g powdered or ground flaxseed

2 packets Truvia

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 tablespoon smooth peanut butter

32g apple sauce

10g sliced almonds, somewhat crushed

TOPPING

10g unsweetened shredded coconut

10g raisins

5g sliced almonds

some shaved coconut chips

Pie time! Pie time! Pie time!

Combine all your filling ingredients in a ziplock bag. Shake the bag, massage the bag, speak kindly to the back, and work all of the ingrediens together. Refrigerate overnight.

When you remove your apple bag from the fridge, give it a taste and add the extra packet of truvia if you want it.

To make the crust, combine the wheat germ, flaxseed, truvia, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Add the coconut oil and mix and mash it together with a fork. Add in the peanut butter and mix and mash. Add in the apple sauce and mix and mash.

Very, very lightly grease a pie pan with a couple drops of coconut oil. Press your crust misture evenly into the pie pan. Don’t go up the sides at all. Press the kinda crushed almonds into the crust.

Starting with the ugly, not-so-circular pieces of apple, begin laying your pieces on the crust from the center out. Retain the ziploc for later apple juice dousing. Toss some of your raisins and shredded coconut in there. Lay your pretty, nicely sliced pieces along the outer ring of the pie first, overlapping each piece (perfect for camouflaging those almost pretty slices too). Repeat this with an inner circle of overlapping apple slices. Arrange your remaining raisins and sprinkle your coconut shreds and sliced almonds on top. Do something delightfully artful with the coconut chips. Because you fancy. Douse the pie with some of the left over apple juices.

Cover with plastic wrap, then foil, and refrigerate for a few hours. Cut into 8 equal pieces and dive in!