Caramel Apple ‘Spider’ Pie

This caramel apple spider pie is at the top of the list for the cutest spooky Halloween treat and it is like no other pie I’ve ever tasted but in the BEST way! The filling is made from sweet spiced apples cooked down in apple cider and then cooled and mixed with sweet fluffy whipped cream and mascarpone. Chatfield’s® Date Sugar lends the PERFECT caramel sweetness to the filling without adding any refined sugar. Finally, the sweet, creamy filling is tucked into the MI-DEL® gluten free graham crust and decorated with the most delicious spider web caramel topping and cute, spooky MI-DEL® cookie spiders!

Ingredients
Caramel Topping:
Instructions
  1. In a medium saucepan, stir together 3 cups peeled, cored, and diced apples, 1/2 cup of apple cider, 1 tablespoon Chatfield’s® Date Sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. Place Over medium heat for 10 minutes stirring occasionally until cider is almost completely reduced.
  2. Take the mixture off the heat and let it cool completely. Tip: it will speed up the process to put them in a different container and place it in the freezer while you work on the rest of the filling. Just don’t let it go too long or your apples will freeze.
  3. Meanwhile, in the bowl of the stand mixer or with a handheld mixer, beat 1/2 cup cold heavy whipping cream until it forms stiff peaks (this means when you pull the beater out and turn it upside down, the cream should stand up to a point without falling to the side. Tip: It helps the cream whip well when you put your mixing bowl and whisk in the freezer for a few minutes beforehand.
  4. Fun fact: If you overbeat the cream, it will start to curdle and eventually it turns into butter! Worst case, you realize it’s overbeaten, and you get some fresh butter out of the deal and start again
  5. In a separate bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup date sugar and 8 ounces softened marscarpone.
  6. In the bowl of a stand mixer or with your handheld mixer, carefully add the marscarpone mixture to the whipped heavy cream and beat on high speed until just combined. Do not overbeat.
  7. Fold in the completely cooled apple mixture into the marscarpone/heavy cream mixture just until combined. Tip: You can think of folding in as lifting up from the bottom and then carefully cutting through the middle of the mixture until everything is combined. It helps to envision that there are tiny air bubbles in the mixture and your goal is to to keep the air in the mixture and not deflate it.
  8. Set the filling aside.
For the caramel:
  1. Whisk together 1/2 cup date sugar and 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp water in a small saucepan until completely combined. Then cook over medium low heat whisking constantly for one minute. Take the mixture off the heat and immediately whisk in 1/4 cup of heavy cream. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
  2. When the caramel has cooled (it can still be warm, just not hot) put it into a small decorating bottle, a piping bag, or a zip top bag with a tiny corner snipped off.
To Assemble and Decorate:
  1. Pipe as much caramel sauce into the bottom of your MI-DEL® graham cracker crust as desired making sure to leave some to decorate the top with your spider web design.
  2. Scrape the filling out into your crust on top of the caramel layer and smooth out the top gently.
  3. To make the spider web design, it’s easiest to do a quick internet search for a graphic of a spider web to look off of, but I will list off some general directions here as well.
  4. Start in the middle of the pie by drawing a small circle. From there make 8 lines from the small center circle like the spokes of the wheel. Lastly, connect the wheel spokes with lines slightly curved inward toward the center circle. This is the fun part so don’t stress if you don’t feel like it’s perfect! All spider webs are unique and it’s still going to taste delicious any way you slice it.
  5. For an extra dose of spooky fun, finish decorating with these cute and easy MI-DEL® cookie spiders!
For the cookie spiders:
  1. Take apart a MI-DEL® sandwich cookie and place pretzel sticks into the icing side for legs. Place the top of the cookie back on to sandwich the legs in between, and use the caramel sauce to stick on a couple Chatfield’s® chocolate chips for the eyes. Repeat for as many spiders as you’d like on your web!
Additional Notes:
  1. You could make the caramel up to a day ahead and leave at room temperature in a sealed container.
  2. Make and refrigerate this pie for up to two days ahead of time.