Let’s put it out there: you love pie, but you’re lazy. It’s ok, no judgment. Sometimes you just don’t feel like coring 14 apples and making a basket-weave out of dough, right? But there’s nothing more American than apple pie and alcohol, so combine your affinity for apple pie with your adoration of Brothers Drake Apple Pie mead, and you’ve got an easy parfait that’s perfect for the winter months. Brothers Drake’s mead is sublime on its own (especially in the bourbon-barrel aged variety) so adding the Apple Pie mead here amps up the fruity goodness of the pie filling!
Yields 8 Parfaits
Ingredients
½ cup graham cracker crumbs
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. melted butter
1 tsp. salt
1 package French vanilla instant pudding
2 cups cold milk
1 can apple pie filling, apples chopped into small pieces
½ cup Brothers Drake Apple Pie Mead
1 container whipped topping or Cool Whip, thawed
Caramel sauce and chopped pecans for topping, optional
Mix together the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, salt and sugar. Place crumbs on a rimmed baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes to toast the crumbs. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
Meanwhile, beat the pudding mix and milk in a medium-sized bowl and allow to stand, so that the pudding thickens. In another small bowl, stir together the chopped apple pie filling and the mead.
Begin to assemble the parfaits. I like to layer the deconstructed pies in mason jars for speedy serving. Divide half of the crumb mixture among each of the jars, then top with a layer of pudding, followed by a layer of the apple mixture, then top with a dollop of whipped topping. Repeat the process for all jars; each parfait should have two layers of each item, ending in whipped topping.
Sprinkle the nuts and drizzle on some caramel sauce to garnish the parfaits, if desired. Hide a couple in the back of the fridge so you have some extra parfaits for yourself later. Enjoy!
