I really would love to set the scene for you: It’s Christmas
Eve and my best friend and I are hosting a little get-together for our other
Australian friends who also found themselves in London for Christmas. It’s a chilling
three degrees outside with the grass completely covered in frost. Our mugs are
never without a serving of steaming hot chocolate. The dogs and cats wander
around our feet in hope we drop some food off the kitchen bench. Christmas
carols are playing on repeat. We’re wearing our cozy Christmas sweaters we
would never dream of wearing back home in Australia for Christmas.
Now I know, Christmas has
already been, but the thought of this apple pie made me so nostalgic that I
wanted to re-live the memories by writing this recipe. Plus if you’re from a
colder climate this could be your saviour on those frosty winter evenings. Despite
it being around the 30 degree mark here I will definitely be re-creating this
(..with the help of my blasting air conditioner).
Ingredients:
For the pastry –
- 250g plain flour
- 50g icing sugar
- Sea salt
- 1 lemon
- 125g cold butter
- 2 large eggs (I always do free-range just because I like the idea of my chicken laying an egg peacefully roaming the fields)
- A dash of milk
For the pastry I actually used this Jamie Oliver recipe: http://www.jamieshomecookingskills.com/recipe.php?title=apple-pie.
If you’re not a massive baker I would totally recommend looking at that recipe
for how to do the pastry because he does it step-by-step. I would have been creative
and tried to come up with my own pastry but this recipe is just so amazing that
anything I would have attempted to create would have been crummy in comparison.
For the filling –
- 8 apples (personally I prefer Pink Lady apples because I think they’re slightly sweeter)
- ¼ cup of brown sugar
- Cinnamon
- Cloves
- Nutmeg
Method:
Pastry -
1. Preheat
the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4
2. Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl
3. Add the sugar, a pinch of salt, and then the
zest of the lemon. (I like to add in a lot of lemon zest because it tastes even
better)
4. Cut the butter up into little cubes then add
into the bowl as well
5. Using your fingertips gently work the butter
into the flour and sugar until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. (This can
sometimes take a little bit).
6. Crack the egg and add into the mixture along
with a dash of milk. Mix the mixture with your hands until it becomes dough.
Wrap the dough in clingfilm (or we call it gladwrap) and pop it in the fridge.
Filling –
Instead of using Jamies
recipe my friend and I went a little rouge and came up with our own filling
which (not to sound up myself) tasted amazing.
1. Peel at the apples and then cut the apples into
eights. If you prefer you can cube them but I like doing the eights.
2. In a small-medium saucepan on medium heat add the
apples and the brown sugar
3. After the brown sugar has melted a little bit, mix
the apples around so they get coated in the brown sugar
4. Add some ground cinnamon, ground cloves and nutmeg.
It’s totally up to you how much you would like the add.
5. Once apples have cooked feel free to smell the
mixture to determine if there are enough spices. The beauty of these spices is
that they just smell like Christmas..which for that reason I add A LOT.
6. Take the saucepan off the heat
Putting it all together –
1. Dust a work surface with flour
2. Divide the pastry into two separate pieces
3. With a rolling pin roll out one of the pastry
halves until it is slightly larger than the pie dish you will be using
4. Ease the pastry into the pie dish. Make sure all
the sides are pushed into the corner. Like Jamie says “Don’t worry if it tears
of breaks – just patch it up – it will look nice and rustic”. Thank-you Jamie,
I do very much agree with you on that one.
5. Spoon out the apple mixture from the saucepan into
the pie dish. It doesn’t matter if it fills out over the top because it will just
be a fuller pie (which I loveeeee).
6. Roll out the other piece of dough until it is large
enough to fit over the top of your pie.
7. Carefully place the dough on top of your pie and then
pinch the edges together.
8. With the remaining egg separate it. With the yolk
add a splash of milk and whisk together. Brush the top of the pie with the egg
wash.
9. If you have any pastry left over feel free to make
any shapes to add on top of the pie for that added effect. We chose holly to go
along with the festive spirit.
10. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes until it becomes
a beautiful golden brown colour
11. Once cooked feel free to serve it with ice-cream,
cream or even custard. Enjoy!
