Roasted Pepper Marmalade Pie With Decorative Crust

The other day, our local grocery store was selling fresh organic mini peppers. My friend and I bought a big lot and I made a few recipes. But some more were left out and so thought of making the roasted pepper marmalade and because the pie contest was going on , I thought of making a pie out of it. For the crust, I used some animal shaped cookie cutters and tried making it look more decorative. Hope you like it.

Step 1: ​Ingredients:

For Pie Crust:

1. All Purpose Flour - 2 1/4 Cups
2. Salted Butter - 2/3 Cup (If unsalted butter, then add 1/2 Tsp salt)
3. Ice Water - 1/2 Cup
4. Lemon Zest - from 1 medium size lemon

For Pie Filling:

1. Red Bell Pepper - 2 Big Size or 15-20 mini peppers. I used the mini peppers.
2. Apple - 1 big size
3. Sugar - 1/4 Cup
4. Honey - 1 Cup (Adjust as per sweetness requirement)
5. Lemon Zest - from 1 medium size lemon
6. Lemon Juice - 4 Tsp
7. Black Pepper Powder - 1/2 Tsp

Step 2: Make the Pie Crust Dough

1. Take flour in a mixing bowl
2. Grate the cold butter so its easy to mix.
3. Use your hand and massage the flour and butter so that butter gets coated on all the flour granules.
4. Add lemon zest.
5. Add salt if you are using unsalted butter.
6. Add ice cold water slowly and mix till it forms a ball and leaves the sides of the mixing bowl.
7. Don't over work it.
8. Wrap it in cling wrap and refrigerate it for about 1hour so it is cold enough.
9. This will help obtain a crisp flaky crust.

Step 3: Roast the Peppers in Oven

1. Preheat oven to 450 degree F
2. Line the peppers on a greased oven safe vessel.
3. Bake for 10mins on each side.
4. Remove from oven and let it cool

Step 4: Make the Roasted Pepper Marmalade Pie Filling

1. Wash the apple and grate it.
2. Add lemon juice and mix so apples don't discolor.
3. Remove the skin of the roasted peppers.
4. Chop half of them into tiny pieces and blend the rest to a fine paste.
5. Heat a pan containing sugar and honey.
6. When it starts bubbling, add the grated apple, chopped and blended peppers and mix well.
7. Let it cook for about 10mins.
8. Add the lemon zest and black pepper powder and cook till its nicely done.
9. Taste it and add more honey if required.
10. Turn off the stove and allow it to cool down completely before adding it to the pie crust.

Step 5: Make the Pie

1. Divide the pie dough into 2 parts.
2. One half for the bottom pie crust and the other half for the top layer.
3. Roll the pie dough on a dough smeared work surface as thin as about 1/4 inch.
4. Place it carefully on a pie pan.
5. Roll the other half of the pie dough same as above.
6. Use cookie cutters and make desired shapes. I chose animals/birds.
7. Apply egg wash on the top rim.
8. Stick the cut pie dough characters around the rim and follow the circular pattern and fill the central area also.
9. Apply egg wash on the top of the pie.
10. The Pie is now ready to be baked.
11. Preheat oven to 350 degree F.
12. Bake the pie for about 50 - 55 mins.
13. Keep checking post 45mins so it does not burn.
14. For my pie, the sides starts browning faster, so I covered just the rim with aluminium foil to prevent it from burning.