Apple Crumble Pie
My grandmother was a home cook and like me, an avid cookbook and recipe collector. Unfortunately by the time I had entered culinary school, my grandmother had hung up her apron, almost for good, with a few exceptions, one of them being the very memorable way she routinely created a very neat and organised sandwich platter whenever we visited. Made with super soft bread and traditional fillings, cut into triangles and always everytime without fail, adorned with parsley. You know, the rough prickly variety, that no-one really likes to eat, but serves its purpose perfectly as a modest garnish. Funnily enough, I later found a little piece of paper from her recipe collection, which had a hand drawn diagram of how to create the perfect arrangement of sandwiches on a platter. I foolishly thought this was funny when I first laid eyes on it, later to realise that I am forever reorganising things when putting together a platter for serving. The ingenius woman had been smart enough to plan in advance, rather than frivolously shuffling around in a state of panic all for the sake of perfection.
Whilst sorting through her collection of written pages and paper magazine cut outs, I came across this long thin piece of yellowed newspaper with an article entitled: ‘Spirits never crumble with apples cooked in butter’, written by Stephanie Alexander. For some reason this article title has always stuck with me and has been one of favourite quotes. And so with just these words, you can imagine how this apple pie recipe is assembled.
When it comes to pies, apple pie would have to be everyone’s ‘go to’. Easy to make, with ingredients often already at hand, apple pie is eaten by my family several times throughout the year. My favourite way to bake this pie would have to be with a crumble top, as you already have the rich shortbread pastry encasing the pie. And if you are lazy and short on time, you can omit the pastry and simply bake it as an apple crumble. The results will be the same and you will have less dishes to do.
That last sentence coming from the sensible side of a mother of two.
For this dessert, I really only have two comments to make. First one being, in the way of apples, you can use any variety you like. However what I would suggest is to think about the flavour palete of each type and use a few varieties together. Try to go for something sweet and delicate, like ‘golden delicious ‘, but also something with a little bit of tartness such as ‘pink lady’. Having said this, if I’ve got apples of any variety, that are looking a little sad, I’ll just go ahead and use them without much thought because we don’t like to waste fruit in our household. Second comment is, I must insist that this pie is eaten with runny double cream or if you only have ice-cream, let it melt slightly before serving. Seems like an odd recommendation, but you’ll see what I mean when you take that first bite.
Makes one 25cm apple pie.
Ingredients
Pastry Case
Half quantity of Shortbread Shortcrust pastry
Filling
6 apples of two different varieties
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp of Apple cake spice (or 1 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp mixed spice)
80g unsalted butter
2 tbsp water
Crumble Top
3/4 cup self raising flour
1/4 cup plain flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp Apple cake spice (or 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp mixed spice)
120g unsalted butter (cold)
Method
Pre-heat oven to 200C.
Make dough, wrap in plastic and refrigerate until ready to use.
Make the filling. Peel, core and cut apples into 1.5cm cubes. Combine apples, sugar, spice, butter and water into a medium sized heavy based saucepan and mix until combined over a low to medium heat. Your apples are ready when your are able to pierce them easily with a butter knife. At this point, they should still hold their shape. Set aside to cool slightly.
Make crumble top. Cut butter into 1cm cubes. Combine both flours, sugar and spice into a medium sized bowl and add in the cubed butter. Using your finger tips, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until you have a very rough rubble. Cover and set aside in the refrigerator.
Roll out your dough and fit into pastry case. If you would like to make the fluted edge you can view a video on how to do this here.
Pour apple mix into pastry case and top with crumble rubble.
Place into the oven and bake for 25 minutes. Reduce heat to 180C, rotate pie and bake for a further 5-10 minutes or until golden.
Storage
Store covered in the fridge for up to four days.
The essentials
Recipe inspiration sourced from
A Stephanie Alexander artical title:
‘Spirits never crumble with apples cooked in butter’. - The Sunday Age.
