Happy Pi (Ï€) Day!!
Sweet maple apples baked in a pie with a smoky, salty cruelty-free bac*n topping…does life get any better?!
I’ve been eating this for breakfast for days (fruit & protein, breakfast of champions!). I ended up making four of them. Recipe testing the different bacon substitutes out there and finding which one pairs best with apples was a ton of fun. Well, there were some not fun moments too. Like when I tasted one of the bacon subs – argh, gross, this is why vegan food gets a bad rap!
Thankfully, there were two brands that were good and that contrasted with the apples beautifully. Sadly, neither of them looks exactly like bacon – you can totally tell they’re substitutes, but flavor wise they were the best.
- Sweet Earth Benevolent Bacon – Hickory & Sage flavored, deep smoky flavor, really comes through and balances the sweetness of the apples. Thin-ish slices, sorta looks like bacon. Doesn’t really get crispy, more like strips of soft thin-sliced protein. (oh yeah, 10g of protein per serving! 4 servings per pkg)
- Tofurky Maple Tempeh Bacon – Great maple smoky flavor, thicker than the Sweet Earth, very non-bacon look and texture. Tempeh just can’t emulate bacon consistency-wise. But, it tastes yummy! Offsets the sweet apples beautifully. (12g protein per serving. 2.5 servings per pkg.)
Brands I would AVOID for this recipe: Lightlife Smart Bacon, Upton Naturals Bacon Seitan and Yves Veggie Bacon. All of these LOOK a lot more like bacon, which makes them look more like the pie from Loveless Cafe, but holy jeez the flavors are way off. I’ll have  LVB test kitchen post soon about all the vegan bacon choices. Look for that coming up!
I hope you have some fun pies planned for this pi day. I’d love to hear how you celebrated!
This recipe was completely inspired by the Bacon Apple Pie from Loveless Cafe.
Step by Step
| Prep Time | 15 |
| Cook Time | 60 |
| Servings |
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- 5 cups thin sliced apples (2lb) (I use Fuji apples)
- 1/4 cup maple syrup + 1 tablespoon
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 single pie crust (store bought or homemade)
- 1 (or two) pkg bac'n substitute of your choice. (please read above to see which I recommend)
Ingredients
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- Preheat oven to 400F. Defrost your pie shell, if needed.
- Cook bac*n substitute according to package directions. Most suggest lightly pan frying for best results.
- In a large bowl, combine the sliced apples, 1/4 cup maple syrup, cornstarch, cinnamon, and ginger. Mix well.
- Carefully pile apples into prepared crust. It's ok if they go over the top of the crust, they will shrink as they bake.
- Arrange cooked bac*n strips on top. In a pretty fashion if you desire or free style it.
- Brush top of bac*n with remaining 1 tablespoon maple syrup. Cover pie with foil and bake 50-60 minutes, until apples are bubbling. Remove foil and bake for an additional 5 minutes uncovered.
- Let cool 1 hour before slicing. Super hot apples are no joke. Enjoy!
It seems most packages of bacon substitutes are 5-6 oz. This is enough to 'mostly' cover the top of a 9" pie. You can see in my pictures that the entire top was not covered. If you would like to completely cover the pie, you'll need 1 1/2-2 packages, depending on the brand.