If summer is equal to grilling, than autumn is equal to baking- or at least, that's how the analogy goes! It's easy to switch to baking mode as the weather around you cools down and you crave a comforting pile of blankets every time you feel the goosebumps creep up your arms when you are chilled. The scent of warm apple pie is a welcome puncture to the scent of the colder air trying to creep into your house through all the small leaks in your window.

This pie is just as warm and comforting as a blanket fort, with the added ingredient of nostalgia for your childhood and the memory of fresh apples piling up in the kitchen for a pie making session. Combining the ingredients for an apple pie is almost like doing a magic trick. Mixing the ingredients together produces a dish much more flavorful and interesting than the ingredients could ever be individually. This blend allows your magic to move faster, since you already have a delicious mix of spices waiting to be added to your apples, flour, and sugar. Making a fresh apple pie from scratch to comfort your autumnal brain is much easier than you may think!

The Story of Organic Apple Pie Spice

Apple Pie is just as American as the flag, with some of this country's most patriotic moments being linked back to our favorite iconic dessert. We wanted to create a blend that could become just as synonymous with autumn as apple pie has become, so when you think of pie you think of our flavorful spice blend. With our selection of organics continually expanding, and the cold weather slowly creeping into our area as the days grow shorter, we thought it would be a good time to create an organic version of our popular, fall-friendly conventional version of Apple Pie Spice.

The origins of apple pie are less American than English though. The first written recipe is credited to Geoffrey Chaucer, the great author of the famed "Canterbury Tales," who printed an apple pie recipe. At the time, the pie would have been made of "good apples, good spices, figs, pears, and raisins" in 1381. It was colored with saffron and then "baked well" in a "coffin" or pastry shell that was not meant to be eaten. Instead, this coffin was used to preserve and keep the insides fresh at a time when refrigeration was not yet an available technology. If you noticed, there was no mention of sugar in this recipe. This is because sugar was not introduced to apple pie until the 1500s when it became a cheaper and more widespread ingredient. Around this time, the coffins were redesigned to become an edible part of the pie as well.

While the myth of Johnny Appleseed perpetuates the idea that he brought widespread attention to apples across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, it is more likely that he grew crabapples for use in hard ciders, not the apples we use for eating or pie baking today. European settlers were the first people to bring apples to America, and the first to bring their apple pie recipes with them. Some of the earliest apple trees that grew were planted in New Jersey in 1632. More than two thousand five hundred varieties of apples grow in the United States today.

Dutch apple pies were the inspiration for the lattice style crust we see on many apple pies today, but there is another variety with a crumb top that we associate with Dutch apple pies more than American apple pies. These Dutch apple pies typically have two other ingredients, cinnamon and lemon juice, which are added more for texture than they are for flavor. They also sometimes feature icing or raisins.

What's in it?

Our Organic Apple Pie Spice is hand blended with Organic Cardamom, Organic Ginger, Organic Nutmeg, Organic Allspice, and Organic Cinnamon.

Flavor Profile

This is a signature baking spice that is sure to delight. The cinnamon lends to a rich, spicy flavor while the allspice is warm and gentle. For a savory note, nutmeg is thrown into the blend, and as a nod to that Dutch flavor, the ginger in this blend gives a little bit of its lemony pungency to the apple pie. The spice that holds this whole blend together and successfully marries all of these unique flavors is the complexity of the cardamom- somehow it pairs well with each of the other spices to make this blend a perfectly cohesive flavor experience.

Where to Use

This is of course the quintessential spice blend for all things apple pie, from actual pies to Apple Pie Fries, or even Apple Pie French Toast Casserole. It's great on any sweets you can think of, like cobblers, dumplings, donuts, tarts, apple fritters, or cakes. You can dash some on your morning oatmeal, throw some into that plain old pancake batter, or add it to banana breads. In savory applications, it makes for a great ingredient in barbecue sauces or mops of many kinds. Try it on your pork recipes and in savory soups, like Ethiopian Beef Stew.

Give it a try in our Butternut Squash and Apple Soup or our Apple Cider Sweet Potatoes. It is also great on a variety of roasted vegetables, particularly root vegetables.

Helpful Hints

It is easy to see that a perfect apple pie is crafted with delicious spices and the perfect apples. Everyone likes different apples in their pies, but there are some that are objectively better than others based on how they bake down in an apple pie recipe. You want something crisp and acidic, like the Granny Smith, for a perfectly baked apple pie. Pair these pies with a delicious glass of chilled plant milk and have yourself a sweet dessert.

This Apple Pie Spice, or Apple Pie Seasoning, is an extremely flavorful ingredient. Just 2 teaspoons is enough to give a huge amount of flavor to a single 9 inch pie.

Read More

4 Types of Cinnamon
Holiday Spice Guide
Sweet and Bitter Flavors
The Real Johnny Appleseed Brought Apples- and Booze- to the American Frontier