Easy Cinnamon Roll Pie Crust

How are you coming on your Christmas decs, meal plans, and gift wrapping?  J. and I are a little late because, while the weather has been cooperating with a balmy 60+ degrees every day, we both have both been under the weather.  He woke up Saturday morning with a terrible migraine and sinus pressure that quickly turned into a snot fountain.  I ran the errands by myself on Saturday only to come home with the same thing.  It's kept me home from work both Monday and today with no voice and the snots.  I suspect Kleenex stock is shooting up because of me right now, but I haven't the energy to look.

J., on the other hand, is back at work and he felt good enough last night to put up some of our outside decorations.  He did a good job, don't you think?  I had some of those cheap red outdoor bows and they faded after a year.  I priced some replacements at anywhere between $4.99 and $11.99 not on sale (but who pays retail anyway?!) and decided to buy some big rolls of ribbon and make my own.  The green and red mesh was $1.00 and red and gold ribbon was $5.00 at Old Time Pottery. I have enough to make another entire set next year if these fade or get torn up.  And, for some reason, I'm really into lime and red this year.  If anyone really wants to know how I made these, let me know and I'll post a tutorial.

Anyway, what else is there to do when you're sick except sit around and wish you could do something else?  I was craving apple pie yesterday and surfing around on the web and found a recipe for cinnamon roll pie crust made with Pillsbury ready-made pie crusts.  It is so easy and SOOOOO yummy, that you have to try it.  Here's what I did:

Beautiful Jonagold and Honeycrisps made their way into my pie. Aren't they gorgeous?

Ingredients for Dutch Apple Pie with Cinnamon Roll Pie Crust

Pie Crust
1 package Pillsbury Ready-Made pie crust (or make your own)
Cinnamon, to suit 

Pie filling
7 to 10 large apples, preferably of 2 different varieties (5 1/2 cups prepped)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar (omit if using super-sweet apples)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

Streusel topping (optional)
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup butter or margarine at room temperature 

Step 1.  Prepare the pie filling

1.  Prep the apples by peeling them, removing the cores and seeds, and then either slicing in thin slices or cubing them.  I've found that small cubes or thin slices tend to fill the pie a little better.

Mixing in the huge Ironstone bowl that J. gave me last Christmas!  Just like my grandma's....

2. In a large bowl, mix the sliced apples, lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon together.
3. Set aside.  Now you're ready to.....

Step 2.  Prepare the pie crust

1.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Prepare the Pillsbury pie crust.  It needs to be room temperature, so follow the steps on the box if you just took it out of the freezer.
3.  On a piece of parchment paper, carefully unroll one of the pie crusts.  Brush the entire crust with melted butter.
4.  Sprinkle cinnamon liberally over the whole crust.  You can add as much cinnamon as you want.
5. Roll the crust back up as tightly as you can.
6. With a sharp knife, cut the roll into 1/4" pieces.  These will look like tiny little cinnamon rolls when you're done!
7.  Press these into the bottom of your pie plate and press them together so that there are no spaces between the pieces.  You can also use a spring form pan to make it easier to get the pie out.  Personally, I like glass pie plates because they seem to bake more evenly.  I just wish I had a deep dish glass one!  (*hint hint* to J. if you're reading this...Christmas is coming up, ya know!)

By the way, I know mine is not as pretty as this one.  But I'm sick and I'm going to eat it anyway. So pppbbbbbbbtttttt!

8.  At this point, you can top the pie any way you like.  I considered doing a lattice top with the other pie crust but then decided that there just wasn't enough sweetness in the pie to cure my cold.  So I made a dutch streusel.  It's much quicker and my recipe is below.

Step 3.  Prepare the topping (optional)

1.  In a medium bowl, add all the topping ingredients together and mix with a fork until coarsely crumbled.
2.  Cover all of the apples evently with the streusel mixture.  The pie is going to look ridiculously tall when you're done but don't worry...it will bake down to normal size.
3:   Bake for 50 minutes at 400 degrees (or whatever your pie recipe calls for).


While it didn't cure my cold, it did made me feel better while I was eating it.  Warm apple pie with fresh vanilla bean ice cream.  Yum!  I hope you'll give this one a try.

This post was shared as part of the Backyard Farming Connection Hop and Barn Hop.  Go check out what everybody else is up to!