It’s apple time folks, so yesterday I bought some local cooking apples and baked an apple pie. The smell wafted through my kitchen, up the stairs and permeated the very being of the house. It was still there when Robert came in from work and he knew that there was dessert that night. A rare occurrence these days as we’re both still trying to loose the last bit of baby weight. Yes, Robert does need to loose a wee bit as he took the opportunity to eat just as much as I did when I was pregnant which meant we both got a bit ‘soft’. But, having said that, if you can’t have apple pie in apple season then I don’t want to know. Besides, we have a lot of trees in our garden and raking the fallen leaves up over the next few weeks is fantastic cardio so I don’t think either of us are too worried.
Anyway, back to the business of pie.
There’s still a slice of it left.
Lunch?
Shhhh, don’t tell Robert.
What you will need:
Click here for a cooking & weight conversion chart if you are not in the UK
For the shortcrust pastry
- 10 inch round pie dish
- Rolling pin
- 350g plain flour
- 30g caster sugar
- 200g unsalted butter (softened)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup cold water
- Extra flour for dusting
For the pie filling
- 6 cooking apples
- 200g light brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
- 1 free range egg (beaten) for glazing
For the apple filling:
- Start by peeling your apples and dicing them. I used local British cooking apples, but any type of tart apple will work well too.
- Put the apple into a large bowl and add the sugar, cinnamon & nutmeg. Mix together well, ensuring that all the apple slices are well coated.
- Set the bowl of apples to one side, cover with a plate or tea towel and leave to macerate in their own juices and absorb all the delicious spices . They should be left to macerate for at least 30mins at room temperature.
- Stir occasionally
Preheat the oven to 190c / 375f
For the pastry:
- In another large mixing bowl add the butter, sugar and salt and then sift in the flour.
- Using your fingertips, crumble all of the ingredients in the bowl together until you are left with a bread crumb consistency. Or you can use your food mixer and the paddle attachment to do this for you
- Add the cold water to the crumble mix and using your hands, mix all the ingredients together letting the water absorb into the crumble mix allowing it to form a soft pastry ball. If the pastry is still too dry and crumbly, just add a little more water a few drops at a time until the pastry is tacky but doesn’t stick to your hands.
- Split the pastry in half and set one half of it to one side for the time being.
- Take the other half of the pastry and use a rolling pin and a dusting of flour to roll the pastry out flat, I rolled mine out to measure approximately 3 mm thick.
- The pastry will also need to be rolled out wide enough to cover the base and the sides of your pie dish.
- Trim off any pastry hanging over the sides of the pie dish with a sharp knife to neaten.
- After half an hour has passed, the apples that have been macerating will be ready to add to the pie dish.
- Give the apples a good stir and then pour them into the pie dish, over the pastry.
- Take the other half of the pastry and roll it out flat. The pastry should be rolled out big enough to cover the top of the pie dish, thus forming the pie lid.
- Cut little star shapes in to the pie lid if you wish to.
- Beat one egg in a bowl and brush the beaten egg over the top of the pie.
- Sprinkle a tiny amount of the brown sugar over the top of the pie. Rub it in gently. This gives the pie a lovely golden top.
- Bake in the oven for approx 30 – 45 minutes. Check on the pie after thirty mins.
- I like my pie, piping hot, straight from the oven with ice cream but if you have small children you may want to allow it to cool first.
Ahhhhhh, pie. I do love cooking and messing about in the kitchen at this time of year. It’s all getting so cosy out there and in here too. We’re working on the Christmas section of my website right now and in answer to some of your questions yesterday I will indeed be uploading instructions for my Christmas stockings at the start of November. This should hopefully give you plenty of time to make them should you wish.
Have a wonderful day. It’s national baking week here in the UK and in my corner of cosy West Sussex my kitchen is crying out for some cakes.
Robert, if you’re reading this you can’t have any.
I love you and thank you so much for reading today. See you tomorrow.
Cherry x
*******************************************
Don’t forget you can join my Facebook page!
Feel free to add me to your links list. Here it is ! - http://www.cherrymenlove.com/
Related posts:
Oh you’re apple pie looks delicious! I made apple tart last night (http://www.makeamealoutofthis.com/2011/10/apple-tart.html#more) which was really surprisingly easy (and yummy). After that success I might try something more adventurous such as this.
Thanks for sharing x
So yummy, sounds like heaven!
x
Cherry – you look like Walt Disney’s Snow White in those photo’s with your dark hair and the red and blue colours. Beautiful xx
Mmmmmm! I can smell that apple pie all the way to Mexico, looks delicious and definitely something to bake this week. I suppose you buy the clotted cream but is there a way of preparing it? I know that England´s cream is unique and is a quintessential british ingredient.
Hello Paty
I wouldn’t use clotted cream for this pie but rather single,double or pouring cream. I do hope you give this pie a go. It’s very easy to make and tastes lovely!
Love, Cherry
It looks delicious! We finally had crisp cool autumn air in northern California with a bit of rain over the weekend. It is indeed time for apple pie! Wish me luck….I’ve never made one! I do have loads of fun watching the ladies at the High Hill apple orchard pie barn behind glass windows making hundreds of pies. The children and adults alike are mesmerized by the huge, ancient automatic apple peeler. It is so big it has a room of it’s own!
http://www.applehill.com/
Looks amazing and I’m loving the garden photos too!
Lovely recipe and lovely Anthropologie bowls.
Hi Cherry, I’ve been checking in since 10 this morning, looking for your update! I knew it would be something that would cheer me up, as Im in my boring boring, meaningless work (thankfully only ever here a few days a week!) and by the way work, thanks for the lend of the computer and internet access : ) Anyway, love the apple post, I have a few trees at home and made a huge apple crumble at the weekend, the last piece which I did have for lunch yesterday, yum yum.
Ah yes, sorry about that Annie. I was rather late this morning due to grouchy computers. Grrrrrrrr! I’ll be on time tomorrow….hopefully! Cx
You have got me even more excited about my holiday next week down in deepest darkest Cornwall. My yearly pilgrimage to my favourite farm, Roskillys who make the best homemade apple pie with their home made ice cream and clotted cream. All eaten in front of a massive open fire. It is on this day that I don’t mind what the weather is up to. The children and I will be a very full and cosy bunnys xx