“If You have apples, Make a pie”
This saying so fits in my household, and as soon as folks at home see a basket full of apples after I come back from grocery shopping, they assume its treat as it’s a Pie day….
A perfect Pie is all about choice of filling, and a Perfect crust to go with it.
A flaky crust, is perfect for any kind of filling, sweet or savoury. I never add sugar to my pie dough. But If u like too sweet, replace two tbsp of flour with sugar, and the pie gives an overall sweeter bite.
I use the same recipe for making tarts, and use anything from chocolate to fruits to custard to vegetables as a filling.
Pie is different from Quiche
Quiche is a pie made primarily using eggs and Cream for a filling along with other ingredients like vegetables, meat, etc to create a creamier dish, usually served as a main course.
While Tarts and Pie are more of a finger food, dessert or more of a snacks made with variety of fillings, and the shells can be made in advance and the filling done at the time of service. The filling is mostly pre cooked, so no cooking is done at the time of service, except examples like An apple pie, where the apples are cooked along with the crust.
As easy As a Pie
Making a pie is an easy thing if it understood well. the key is to avoid the butter melt away in the process, and this recipe will give you enough hints on how to do that.
Temperature of the oven also plays an important role, as a low temperature at the beginning would spoil the crunch in the pie. So try to maintain the temperatures at 240 degree C in the beginning and reduce it after initial baking time( 20 minutes in a case of filled pie).
My recipe is adopted from Nigella Lawson recipe of a Minced Pie, and I completely loved it , as have never got flakier crust before with more of recipes that I tried over years.
Which apples to choose for the Apple Pie
I like to stick to green apples, or the Australian Fuji apples, for the crunch. Usually local Himachal variety can be used if they are sweet and crunchy at the time of the year when u decide to make the apple pie.
| Prep Time | 15 Minutes |
| Cook Time | 45 Minutes |
| Passive Time | 2 Hours |
| Servings |
portions
|
- 240 gram Plain Flour Maida
- 120 gram Unsalted Butter chilled
- 1/2 Cup Chilled water ice cold
- A pinch of salt
- 1 kg Cooking Apples Cored and fine sliced
- 1/2 Cup Brown sugar
- 1 Tsp Nutmeg powder
- 1 Tsp ginger powder
- 2 Tsp Cinnamon Powder
- 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
- 1 Tbsp Crystal sugar
- 1/2 Egg white
Ingredients
For the Pie Crust
Apple filling
For glaze
|
|
- Chop the butter into small cubes, and add to the flour
- Now with a fork mix the butter and flour, so as to dust all the butter with the flour. And chill it in frridge for 30 minutes( This is what makes it flakier)
- Now take it out and patiently crumble all the butter with fingers against the flour to make a bread crumb consistency.
- The flour and buter mixture should look like fine crumb. Now add chilled water and with soft hands bring together everything. Do not use all the water at once. Go slow,a nd u may not require all of it.
- Now wrap the dough in a cling wrap and chill it refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Take sliced apples and add all the ingredients mentioned for the filling, and toss together.
- Take out the chilled dough and carefully roll it out into a 1/8th inch thick and 12 inch wide circle to fit a nine inch Pie tray.
- Line the tray carefully and chill it in refrigerator for atleast 10-15 minutes. Do not trim th edges.
- Roll out another circular sheet of less than 1/8th inch thickness and cut strips for the lattice on top. I ususally make two circles.
- Fill in the prepared apples in the lined tray.
- Now make a lattice using the strips. Pinch th eedges of extra dough.
- Brush the top with eggwhite, sprinkle sugar.
- Bake it in a preheated oven @240 Degree C for 25 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 200 Deg C and bake till it is crisp, for about 15 minutes. Cover the top with a sheet of aluminium foil if it turns golden before the said time to avoid over browning.
I like to slice my apples, u can cube them.
Add garam masala ( 1/2 tbsp) in the absence of spices in the recipe. This tip was shared by a dear baker friend.
White crystal sugar can be used instead of Brown Sugar.
You can make the dough and refrigerate it beforehand in a day or two in advance.
It can be stored for a month in the freezer, thaw in refrigeration and used.
Refrigerate the tray after lining especially in winters to avoid melting of butter.
U can brush the pie with melted butter and sprinkle sugar instead of egg in case of vegetarian options.
