Always to be paired with vanilla ice-cream. Always.
Ingredients:
400g flour
200g butter, cold & cubed
20g sugar
1 cold whole egg + a little cold water
5-6 apples, any variety really
50g sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
a little lemon zest and juice to taste
Method:
Rub butter into flour and sugar until crumbly, warm hands equal hot mess so use only the finger tips. Add cold egg and as much water as required to bring the pastry together. Wrap well and rest in fridge for 30 mins.
Peel and cut apples into small chunks/pieces according to desired texture for filling. Cook apple with sugar and cinnamon until tender, add lemon. Set filling aside to cool.
Divide up pastry for case and lid, 2/3 and 1/3 respectively. Roll out and line pie dish, prick pastry with fork to allow steam to escape when baking. Depending on the heat conductvity of your pie dish, either blind bake pastry case or simply place cooled filling into case directly and cover with lid. Crimp edges to seal and use a fork to create vents on lid. Eggwash before baking at 180C for 35-40 mins. Demerara sugar can be added to give the crust a sweet crunch.
Working the pastry dough builds up gluten strands, which gives the dough more structure but also takes away the flakiness of texture. If a more robust crust is desired, use sweet crust pastry. Sugar in the dough makes it more difficult to handle but gives the crust dimension in flavour.
Pastry’s never my favourite thing to work with in the heat, but the pie is worth it. Till next time.
woodenroller 