A few years back my sisters-in-law and myself used to go out to a branch of Aroma where we live… For those of you residing outside of Israel, Aroma is a chain of Cafes with mediocre coffee, but excellent salads, sandwiches and baked sweets. Our favorite baked treat was an individual cheese-apple pie… When I really like something I have an overwhelming need to recreate it, so after several trials (and errors) I came up with the following recipe. Not sure how identical it is to the original, but it is SO good, I don’t really care at this stage
Tip: If you don’t like apples, or not digging the apple-cheese combo, you can skip the apple filling, and simply serve with fresh berries (I favor strawberries, raspberries and blackberries)
Pie Crust Ingredients
300 gr. flour (for a Gluten-Free version use Tami flour – currently only in Israel, or Schar Gluten-Free Bread Mix)
200 gr. butter (140 gr. if you are using goatsmilk-butter)
100 gr. caster sugar
1 large egg
Pie Crust Preparation
Place all of your ingredients in your food processor and pulse until a ball starts to form.
Flatten dough slightly and wrap in saran wrap. Refrigerate for an hour.
Cover a pie tin (including sides) with the dough – you can roll and cover, but I, being lazy, just spread the dough using my fingers.
prick the dough with a fork and freeze until the fillings are ready.
Tip: You can also make these in individual-portion tins
Apple-Filling Ingredients
4 Granny-Smith apples (the green-sour kind)
¼ cup granulated sugar
Apple-Filling Preparation
Finely-grate the apples, and sprinkle the sugar over them.
Cheese-Filling Ingredients
500 gr. plain fresh white cheese (in the US, I am told the closest thing is FAGE Total Classic cheese, if you know better, let me know!), you can also use Ricotta.
2 Daniela Whipped-Cheese Vanilla treats (if outside of Israel, you can use Yoplait Whips – Vanilla).
4 large eggs, separated
½ cup sugar
3 Tbsp. Cornstarch
½ tsp. baking powder
Cheese-Filling Preparation
Mix the cheese, whipped-cheese treats and sugar in a bowl. Add the egg yolks and mix well.
Whip the egg whites with 1 Tbsp. sugar until solid. Fold into cheese mixture.
Add cornstarch and baking powder and incorporate well.
Putting it all together
Preheat your oven to 160C/320F.
Take the pie crust out of the freezer.
Spread the grated apples evenly on the crust.
Pour cheese filling over grated apples and up to the height of the crust on the tin sides.
Bake until cheese-filling is solid and lightly golden.
Cool and sprinkle evenly with caster sugar.
