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
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Leave it till it leaves juices |
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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
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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.
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| Leave it on a wire rack to cool down a little |
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| 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.
