This week brings my favorite holiday of the year - especially since I get to dive into my A Perfect 10 Perfect Thanksgiving Menu! Since A Perfect 10 was published in 2022, it's been so great to see how many readers have delved deep into my Thanksgiving recipes. This year, I'm of course making all the classics, but thought I'd enhance the dessert table with a pie I included in my new A Perfect 10 Party Edition cookbook - dubbed the "Princess Leia Cinnamon Roll Apple Pie" - obviously called that due to the top crust layer being a bunch of smushed cinnamon buns. So fun, so good...and your Thanksgiving guests will be wowed.
To make it even more fun this year, instead of a bunch of little pie crust cinnamon pinwheels, I'm shaking it up and using a tube of store-bought cinnamon rolls - Traders Joe's has their jumbo tube, with 5 cinnamon rolls, that I'm slicing in half and producing 10 cinnamon rolls, perfect to smush with a plate and make lids for two pies.
Make the pie: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place one pie crust into a 9-inch pie plate. In a large mixing bowl, toss 5 peeled and sliced Granny Smith apples with fresh juice of 1 lemon, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/4 cup of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Toss well, then scatter onto the pie crust. Bake for 30 minutes.
Prep the cinnamon roll topping: While your pie is cooking, pop open a tube of cinnamon rolls. Slice each roll in half, producing twice as many cinnamon rolls. Using the bottom of a small plate, gently flatten to about half the height.
Put it all together: After the 30 minutes, remove the pie from the oven. Spread each flattened cinnamon role over the top of the apples, to cover as much as possible. You may not need all of them for one pie. Return to the oven, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes more, until cinnamon roll top is golden brown and the filling is bubbling hot.
Let the pie cool slightly, then drizzle the glaze that came with the cinnamon rolls over the top.
WINNER!