Rose Apple Pie - Week 7

Rose Apple Pie is the perfect Valentine's pie...

some love flowers, more love pie, and this is both!

I remember the first time that I got a rose for Valentine's. I was in high school, and heard my name announced on the intercom to come to the office. As I was making my way to the office, the anticipation was building because everyone knew that if your name was called on Valentine's Day that a special delivery was waiting for you in the office.  I received a single red rose in a vase from my future husband and it truly was a special moment.

I've tried to return the favor by giving him flowers, but men just don't appreciate the gift of flowers like women do. However, I think I've found flowers that everyone can appreciate. My husband enjoyed this pie and ranks it at the top right below the bacon apple pie.

Pictures of the rose apple pie have been all over the internet in the last year. But the original post is Bulgarian, and some of the ingredients/directions didn't translate well. In my continued research, I found that others had failed at trying this pie, so I was a little nervous trying this out.  The pie exceeded my expectations other than the fact that I would have prepared more apples so I would have been able to fill the entire top. I had only prepared 3 gigantic Jonagold apples, where I think 5 average size apple would be sufficient to fill the top; so I've adjusted the final recipe.

I also chose a simple cream cheese filling rather than take a chance with the Bulgarian recipe. When it was time to roll the roses, I was pleasantly surprised at the ease that I was able to put them together. After rolling the roses, I was able to place them in the cream cheese filling and it stayed together and didn't unravel while I worked on the rest.

Ingredients:

1 Deep dish Pastry Pie Crust

3 cups Water

1-1/2 cups Sugar

5 Apples, thinly sliced

1- 8 oz. pkg Cream Cheese

1/4 cup Sugar

1 Egg

1/2 t. Vanilla

1/3 cup Sugar

1 t. Cinnamon

Directions:

Blind bake crust for 10 minutes at 400 degrees. 

Boil water and 1-1/2 cups sugar in large pan. Add apples and return to boil and continue to boil for 2-3 minutes or until slices are transparent (cooking time depends on variety of apples). Drain the apple slices in a colander. After the apples have cooled some, arrange slices on paper towel.

Mix cream cheese and sugar well. Add egg and vanilla and mix well.

Place cream cheese mixture in baked shell.

To make apple roses, take a small slice of apple and roll it into a tube, and add slices to the tube until you get the desire size. Arrange roses on top of the cream cheese mixture. Before baking, sprinkle apples with cinnamon sugar. Bake 50 minutes at 350 degrees or until cream cheese is set.

During my pie-search, I have found other people that have also made a pie per week and blogged about it. My favorite blog so far has been Pie Love You. I enjoyed reading about Kimberly's pies and thought it was fascinating that she was making pies for her husband as newlyweds where I'm making them for my husband after 20 plus years of marriage. I discovered her blog just a few weeks ago, and was amazed at many of the similar recipes we had chose for our pie challenge. 

I encourage you to make a special pie for your family, friends, or yourself and capture that special moment that only flowers or pie can create. Have a great Valentine's and remember that even though this day is set aside to commercialize love, every day is a great day to share love by doing something special for someone else!