All American apple pie paired with bourbon and caramel, smoked in the Green Mountain Grill, makes for a match made in Dessert heaven.
Note, the term caramel is used loosely here as the recipe uses Dulce De Leche, which is a cousin of caramel. Dulce De Leche is a popular heavenly concoction in Latin American countries and is used by itself as well as in desserts like Tres Leches. The core difference between Dulce De Leche and Caramel is that Dulce De Leche is made from sweetened condensed milk and sugar whereas caramel is made from sugar and water. Look for Dulce De Leche in the Latin section of the grocery store, or feel free to substitute an easier to find caramel sauce and use the same method of application below. If you want to make it from scratch, go for it! The beauty of a pellet smoker is that they are as easy to use as an oven, but also impart smoky flavor you cannot get in your oven. The bourbon, apples, salted caramel and smoke make for an intoxicating flavor combination.
5 cups sliced apples OR 6-7 small-medium apples chopped
2 tbsp bourbon
1 dash each: nutmeg, allspice, ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c dark brown sugar
2 tbsp melted butter
2 refrigerated pie crusts
2 tbsp dulce de leche
1 tbsp maldon smoked sea salt or large flake sea salt
Directions
Roughly peel the apples with a vegetable peeler to remove the majority of the peel (doesn’t have to be perfect), then chop them up uniformly and put them in a big bowl.
Add the bourbon, spices, brown sugar and butter and stir to the apples and combine.
Next, let your refrigerated pie crusts slightly thaw and soften out of the refrigerator. I prefer to bake in a 12 inch cast iron skillet for pies on my smoker, but a pie plate would work as well. Roll out the pie dough into the skillet trying to get the dough to roll up on the sides as far as possible.
Next, add your apple mixture.
Here’s the fun part! Put the dulce de leche into a Ziploc sandwich bag and add the maldon sea salt. Run it under hot water in the sink to get it warmed up. This will allow the salt to combine and the caramel to spread easily. Snip the corner of the bag to create a pastry bag. Now, pipe the dulce de leche onto the top of the apple pie mixture. Take the other pie crust and put it on top of the pie and seal the edges. Cut a few slits to let the steam escape.
Set your Green Mountain Grill or pellet smoker to 300 degrees. Let your pie bake for approximately 45 minutes OR until the crust has browned and the apple mixture is bubbly. It is normal for some of the pie juice to come up on the side of the crust, I believe this is due to the shape of the cast iron skillet.
When serving a slice, drizzle more dulce de leche onto each piece for extra yumminess!
