Sausage Apple pie

Sounds gross, doesn't it?

I don't know what made me think sausage apple pie would be a good idea. Perhaps it's because the fall crop of apples is coming in. Apples, apples everywhere. Fresh Overload? Perhaps it was the uneaten sausages that went sitting in my oven for two days -- missing their connection with the pumpkin soup with apple garnish. A desire to redeem those poor withered sausages, unfit for any use?

Regardless of the reason, the last two days have found me obsessed with the concept of spiced apples and sausage jumbled together inside flaky pastry. Savory & sweet together at last. This morning I finally gave into this obsessive line of thinking. Pie shells? Check. Smoked cheddar wurst? Check. Tart, crisp granny smith apples? Check.

I diced the apples and liberally dusted them with cinnamon and nutmeg, then tumbled them with a tablespoon of well softened butter. This encased the apple pieces in a spicy moisturizer that wouldn't dry out in the oven. As this pie was meant to be savory, I added no sugar. Next came the chopped up cheddar wurst, links of precooked pork sausage studded with chunks of sharp cheddar. After adding this to the bowl of apples everything got a few turns with a big spoon to ensure an even mix. Then I turned the whole bowl into the pie shell, added the top crust, trimmed and crimped the edges, and slathered the surface with beaten egg for shine and color. Yes, I used the edge trimmings to make cute little cut outs for the top.

45 minutes later I pulled the pie from the oven. It looked like a contestant for the front cover of Country Cooking Today. The question was, after one taste would I want to eat any more?

Reader, if you're not vegetarian, you should be making plans for beating a path to my doorstep just about now. The cheese in the sausages melted and combined with the juice of the apples to form a supple sauce. The rounds of sausage provided a chewy counterpoint to the softened apples. The resulting mixture of savory, sweet, tartness and spice was just sublime.

Weebl and bob sort of sum up my feelings about it.

Of course you non-pork eaters could sub in turkey or chicken sausage, or perhaps even some sort of veggie fake sausage delight, if such a thing exists. The spoils of fall need not fall only to the carnivores.