Apple Pie

June 05, 2010
Note: I'll be away from 7th to 14th... :)




Baking has always been my passion since young...  and my first attempt ~ was an apple pie. My cousin who was studying in Manchester in the late 70's brought home a baking cookbook with lovely photos ... I was fascinated, smitten and drooling all over the pages... and apple pie caught my attention... I was determined to bake an apple pie... 

Those days... to have an electric oven was a luxury... and my mom precious oven was the black box known as Butterfly oven (picture on the left ~fr google)... placed on a kerosene stove... the temperature was not consistent.. nevertheless.. I baked my first Apple Pie... it was a disaster... too young to understand what it takes to bake and most of the ingredients sounded alien to a young teenager...:) but that experience did not deter me from trying again...

My quest to bake a good apple pie has led me to this recipe from an old book 'Traditional Home Baking'... 

This apple pie is definitely our all time favourite...   I baked this version of apple pie umpteen time... and everytime everyone would ask for more... 

For filling:
  • 6-7 granny smith apples - peeled, cored and cut into 1cm chunks
  • 1 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • ground cinnamon
  • lemon juice
  • add about a tablespoon of flour to thicken it slightly
Soaked the apple chunks in the water with some lemon juice.. not to let the apples oxidise.
Heat up frying pan... and add sugar and water... let the sugar dissolves (before it started to caramelised)... then add the drained apple chunks.. into the pan. Add in grounded cinnamon and continue to cook until the apples are soften and not mushy.

Crust:
  • 150g cold butter - cut into cubes
  • 300g plain flour
  • 3 tablespoon icing sugar
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 2 tablespoon cold water
  • a pinch of  salt
Mix the flour, sugar, salt and butter in a mixing bowl, rub until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Then add egg yolks and water. Mix all until the dough comes together... chill for at least 10 minutes.

Pre heat oven to 180C.

Roll out to fit pie dish, and gently fit in the dish and cut out the excess.. Blind bake for 10-15 minutes...
Fill the pie casing with the apple fillings. Roll out another pastry to cover the pie... Make small incision to let out the 'steam'. Leftover dough.can be cut out for trimmimgs..Brush with milk...
Bake @180C for another 30 minutes or until the top turn to golden brown... Leave it to cool before serving with either cream, custard or vanilla ice cream.



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