Sweet Potato Apple Pie with Spelt Crust, Sugar Free Option

Apples and sweet potatoes are two of my all time favorite foods and did you know they make a good marriage too?

I discovered that cooked apples and roasted sweet potato blend together to make a pie that’s way better than pumpkin and so much easier to make if you want everything from scratch. This pie has body, natural sweetness and when baked in a whole grain spelt pie crust, it’s amazingly good. Spelt is an ancient grain that’s got a lower glycemic count than regular wheat, is easier to digest and edible for many people who are gluten sensitive. I like it because it tastes good. It’s nutty.

I love pie and so do the people in my life, but we are all very mindful of our health and what we are eating. If I’m not eating paleo (no grain at all), I like to find ways to cut sugar and eat as minimally processed as possible.

You could make this pie with my regular pie dough recipe, but if you’re here looking for some new ways to make old desserts, give the spelt flour a try.

I’ve been baking with spelt flour for some time, so I’m used to it and how it performs. It absorbs more liquid than all purpose flour and I wanted to make sure the crust didn’t get too tough. I replaced 1/4 of the butter with cream cheese, and the result is perfect. I throw that word perfect around a lot when it comes to pie crust, because it’s something I can make blindfolded. The good news here is that spelt dough is just as easy to work with and while it has a darker color which might be off putting, that color is what wheat should look like, so just know you’re eating food with more nutritional benefits.

See Video for spelt flour pie crust here.

The following picture is made with all purpose flour, accounting for the difference in color.

The Process

I always stick with gala apples because they remain sweet and don’t require as much sugar, but you can mix it up, as long as you adapt your recipe to the sweetness for your taste. The easiest way to get the sweet potato is to roast it at 400 degrees until it’s so done, it’s nearly breaking the skin. This way you don’t have to worry about peeling or waste. The potato just slips right out of the skin. I used coconut sugar with cinnamon and nutmeg. You can use regular sugar or brown sugar is you want. You can even use maple syrup.

To further reduce sugar and make this pie diabetic friendly, you can use Stevia in the raw. I made one version of that and it tasted just as good as the pie made with the coconut sugar.

Once cooked everything goes in the blender or Vitamix along with a liquid. You can use evaporated milk, half and half or buttermilk. They all work fine, and you can decide.