What do you do when you life gives you a whole lot of apples? If you’re me, you would probably turn some of them into apple pie. Since I am predictable when it comes to apple pie, I did bake pie. However, it was a Norwegian Apple Pie, for a change.
I love anything that’s remotely like apple pie. I find the combination of apple, a bit of brown sugar, cinnamon and crisp flaky crust irresistible. I’d be quite happy with just apple pie filling and no, I don’t really need the ice-cream.
Last week, I had gone vegetable and fruit shopping and came home with half a dozen apples as well. Two days later, we had family visiting and they brought us a lot more apples. In my native community, it is common courtesy to carry along some form of food, when we go visiting family and friends. Something sweet or fruit is norm. This is particularly important if there are elders or children in the family being visited. It is the gesture that is important so it doesn’t matter what you take along.
I went back to my cookbook collection and thumbed through for easy to bake recipes featuring apples. Much as I like apple pie, I didn’t really want to spend time with a pie crust dough. I was looking for an easy and fuss free recipe that would give me dessert in an hour.
I found just the recipe in a Norwegian Apple Pie in Weeknight Desserts by Beatrice Ojakangas. I’m a fan of her recipes and this particular cookbook is full of easy dessert recipes.
A Norwegian Apple Pie or Eplepai is not your typical pie with a crust and filling. It is actually more cake than pie but unlike any other apple cake you might have eaten. A traditional Norwegian recipe, it is simple, comforting and full of apple.
Once you have peeled, cored and diced the apples, the batter comes together in a matter of minutes. It’s a one bowl recipe as well. You don’t even need a hand held mixer. A wooden spoon is more than enough to make the batter. You just gently mix the dry ingredients into the wet ones. I forget to mention that this recipe also does not contain butter or oil.
You can cut it into wedges and serve it warm, as it. Otherwise serve with it a scoop of ice-cream or some whipped cream.
The recipe below is a slightly adapted version of the original.
Norwegian Apple Pie
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 1 tsp powdered cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 2 large apples peeled, cored and diced
- 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 egg lightly beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- A little milk if necessary
Instructions
- Line a 8” pie dish (or cake tin) and butter or grease it well.
- Put the flour, sugars, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into a large mixing bowl. Whisk together and then mix in thediced apple and walnuts so they’re well coated with the flour.
- Mix in the egg and vanilla extract. If the batter feels too dry mix in a little milk, a teaspoon at a time. Don’t add too much milk because this batter should be stiff and not like typical cake batter.
- Scrape the batter into the prepared tin and level it. Bake at 180C (350F) for about 30 minutes till the pie puffs up slightly and is brown.
- Remove from oven and cut into wedges while still warm. Serve as is with coffee or tea, or with ice-cream or whipped cream.
I'm Aparna and My Diverse Kitchen is my ovo-lacto vegetarian food blog where you'll find recipes, food stories & photography. I've been blogging since 2007 and believe the kitchen, and the dining table (by extension) is really the heart of a home. 
Pie looks divine. Thanks for easy recipe. Can we substitute egg with flax seeds or more milk??
Ankita, you can leave it out altogether. You can add a little milk to make up for an equivalent amount of liquid.
Beatrice Ojakangas has wonderful books and recipes but this apple pie/cake really intrigues me. Fall is coming here and that will mean lots of apples. I will keep this one in mind.
Can I leave out the nuts?
Of course, you can.
The final product looks tempting.
You have said that batter should be stiffer. But in foto.it looks running consistency… I thought a stiff batter will look crumbled.
I made this pie and it turned out really good! Added a streusel topping it made the pie extra special for thanksgiving, omitted the egg since I don’t eat eggs but added a flax egg.
Thank you for the wonderful recipe.
You’re most welcome. I’m happy my recipe worked out well. 🙂
Thank you, Sadhana. A stiffer consistency of batter will not look like crumbles. It will liquid but not pour out easily. It will be a bit thicker.
Hi, would it be a problem if I used a 9 inch pan ?
It shouldn’t be a problem but this is already a pie without much height. So with a 9″ pan you might have a very thin pie.
This sounds wonderful. Can you use Almond or coconut flour to make it gluten free?
I wouldn’t know having never tried those flours.