Are you ready for a month long indulgence?? I am so ready for it. And
here goes my first recipe for the month long A to Z Blogging Challenge – its
Apple Pie. I promised you indulgence, and indulgence it will be. As a kid I
used to be a finicky eater and my mum used to find different ways of getting
fruits in me. Apple pies, apple strudels and apple crumbles are those things
that I enjoyed forgetting there was apple in them – which I quite didn’t like
as a fruit (I still don’t like eating a whole apple) !
Okay I want to keep the post short and will have loads of photos.
Let’s straight away go to the ingredients.
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Level: Moderate | Prep Time: 50 mins | Cooking Time: 55 mins
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|
All that you will need for the pie crust (minus the apples) |
All
that you will need
For the
pie crust
- Plain flour – 2 1/ 2 cup
- Salt – 1 teaspoon
- Sugar – 2 table spoon
- Unsalted Butter – 1 cup (chilled and diced)
- Cold water – ½ cup
|
All that you will need for the Filling |
For the Apple Filling
- Apple – 4 large
- White Sugar – ¼ cup
- Brown Sugar – ¼ cup
- Lemon juice – 1 tablespoon
- Raisins/ Sultanas - ½
cup
- Cinnamon – ½ stick grated
- Nutmeg – ½ grated
- Salt – a pinch
- Unsalted Butter – 2 tablespoon
- Cornflour – 1 tablespoon
Let’s get our pie rolling!
Prepare the dough for
the pastry first because it will take some time. Steps are for piecrust and filling separately so go through it
carefully.
1. Sift in flour, mix salt and sugar in it in a large bowl.
2. Add butter and mix in with your fingers.
3. Add water and bring the dough together.
[There is no need to kneed the flour as you would do while
making a bread or pizza dough. We don’t want the glutten to get activated. Mix
the butter in gently with your fingers till you get light crumbles.]
4. Flour your work board/surface and gather the flour and
butter crumbles and bring them all together.
5. When you find the dough’s coming together you are there.
6. Divide the dough in two halves, press them to make flat
discs, wrap them in cling wrap and put in freezer for 15 mins.
[We will have a base pie layer, and a top layer, to add to
the crunch.]
Unless it’s cold you won’t be able to roll them for your pie
base.
7. After 15 mins, roll out 1 half of the dough that will make
the base of the pie.
8. Put the rolled pie crust in a lightly greased pie dish and blind
bake it for 12-15 mins in a pre-heated oven about 220 degrees C or 425 degrees
F.
|
That is how you blind bake. Tip by Jamie Oliver |
9. Take out and keep the pie dish in a wire rack once baked.
Apple Filling
While your pastry crust is bind baking start with your apple
filling.
1. In a bowl add peeled and chopped apples, lemon juice (this
will avoid discoloration), brown sugar, white sugar, raisins, salt, grated
cinnamon and grated nutmeg.
2. Mix them well and leave it for half an hour.
|
Leave it till it leaves juices |
|
That is the kind of caramel sauce you will get
from the apples |
We are doing this to take out the juices, too much juice
from the apple will make the pie crust soggy.
3. After half an hour, strain the juice from the apple and keep
it in a microwave safe cup/bowl.
4. Add butter in that juice and microwave it for 3 minutes, you
will get a wonderful apple caramel sauce out of it.
5. Add corn flour and this caramel sauce to the apple filling
and mix well.
Arranging the pie
|
A good Egg wash with 1 whole egg will give you this
wonderful golden color |
1. Arrange the apple filling in the pie dish.
2. Roll out the other half of the dough and cover the pie,
sealing the edges carefully.
3.Take a knife and make several slits on the pie cover to let
the steam come out.
4. Give it a generous egg wash with a pastry brush to get that
lovely golden colour
5. Bake it in a pre-heated oven for 40 minutes at 220 degrees C
or 425 degrees F.
And you are done with your Apple Pie.
|
Leave it on a wire rack to cool down a little |
|
You are ready to dig in! |
I like my apple pie warm, I always heat it up in the
microwave before digging in. You can enjoy it with vanilla ice cream also, the
combination is awesome.
So there was my first Indulgent recipe for the A to Z
Challenge. Watch this space for some more super awesome indulgent recipes this
month. Tomorrow it’s going to be Banoffee Pie for all pie and dessert lovers.
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Visit A to Z and read awesome posts by bloggers.
I am also participating in this challenge from my writing blog and I'm writing fiction this time. Visit The Sunny Side of Life and show some love.
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Leave a comment below if you have liked the recipe and you want me to share some more pie/dessert recipes.