Apple of Babalu’s Eye

DEAR SOS: Babalu Restaurant in Santa Monica serves a fabulous caramel pecan apple pie, and I would love to have the recipe. The double-crust deep-dish pie uses either Granny Smith or Golden Delicious apples. The top crust has a thick layer of caramel topping with pecan halves covering the entire top.

--MARCIA

DEAR MARCIA: With a description like that, I’m salivating already.

BABALU CARAMEL PECAN APPLE PIE

PIE CRUST

3 cups flour

1/8 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (1/2 pound) cold butter

1/4 cup ice water

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CARAMEL TOPPING

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/2 cup whipping cream

2 ounces cold butter, diced

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FILLING

1 tablespoon lemon juice

6 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced

1/4 cup flour

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

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Pie Crust

1/4 cup butter

Caramel Topping

1 cup pecan halves

*

FILLING

Combine lemon juice, apples, flour, sugar and cinnamon in bowl. Mound filling over bottom crust prepared for filling. Dot with butter. Top with rolled top crust. Trim edges and fold under and crimp. Cut few slashes in top crust for ventilation. Bake at 325 degrees until crust is golden brown, 1 1/2 hours. Pour Caramel Topping over crust and cover with pecans. Place pie on foil-lined tray. Turn to oven to toast nuts 10 minutes.

PIE CRUST

Combine flour, sugar and salt. Cut in cold butter. Work dough with fingers or cutter to form coarse crumbs. Add ice water and mix lightly until stiff dough is formed. Refrigerate to chill dough. Divide dough in half. Roll out bottom crust and place over greased 9-inch pie pan, allowing edges to hang over slightly from rim. Roll out top crust and refrigerate until ready to use.

CARAMEL TOPPING

Combine sugar and corn syrup in saucepan. Stir constantly over high heat until mixture dissolves and turns rich caramel color. Remove from heat and slowly stir in whipping cream and butter until smooth.

Makes 8 servings.

Each serving contain about: 908 calores; 657 mg sodium; 114 mg cholesterol; 49 grams fat; 116 grams carbohydrates; 7 grams protein; 0.86 grams fiber.

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