As promised yesterday, I'm going to share my apple pie recipe with you.
I think I've been making this apple pie recipe since I was about 15 or 16, so you'll notice I use tinned apple rather than fresh in the filling, cos that's what we did then. Of course you can use fresh apples but you'll need about 1.5 kilos of apples, peeled cored and sliced, before gently stewing the apples for about 10 minutes until they've softened but are still holding their shape.
I bought the pie tin from Etsy last September and I've been itching to find a reason to use it, the same with the apple shaped cookie cutter I bought a few months ago.
I have to be careful with how much fat I consume but I was willing to risk it for a piece of pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!
Here's the recipe for you. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup, a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.
GRANDMA'S APPLE PIE
Pastry
1¼ cups self raising flour
1¼ cups plain flour
185 grams (6 oz) cold butter
1 egg yolk
⅓ cup cold water (approximately)
1 egg white
extra sugar
Filling
3 400 gram tins unsweetened pie apple
2 teaspoons lemon juice
½ cup caster sugar
2 tablespoons marmalade or apricot jam
Filling
Pick over the tinned apple removing any lurking seeds, skin or core. In a large bowl, combine the tinned apples with the lemon juice and caster sugar. Reserve the jam or marmalade.
Pastry
In a food processor combine the flours together.Pulse the butter in 30 second bursts until just combined. Combine the egg yolk and cold water together. Slowly add sufficient liquid to the food processor to form a soft dough. Remove the dough from the food processor and shape into a ball and wrap in plastic. Place in refrigerator for 1 hour.
Method
Preheat oven to 190ºC/375ºF. Roll out half the pastry on a lightly floured surface and line a 23 cm pie plate. (If you use a metal pie plate, you won’t need to grease it). Spread the base of the pastry with the reserved apricot jam or marmalade, then top with the apple filling.
Brush edges of the pastry with the lightly beaten egg white. Roll out the remaining pastry and cover top of the pie. Pinch the edges of the dough together, before trimming the edges of the pastry. You can make a decorative edge, either using the tines of a fork or your thumb and fingers. Cut a few slits in the top of the pastry to allow steam to escape. Decorate the pie with rolled out pastry shapes if desired. Brush the top with egg white and sprinkle with the extra sugar.
Place the pie plate onto a baking sheet. Bake the pie for 25 minutes at 190ºC/375ºF before reducing the temperature to 180ºC/350ºF and bake for a further 25 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. Allow to cool on a wire rack before serving.
As my Mum lives interstate I shared the pie with friends and it was consumed with relish. I guess just about every-one likes apple pie.
See you again on Wednesday,
Jillian
