Pink Lady® apples are a perfect accompaniment for pies as they hold their shape and don’t disintegrate when baked, creating beautiful layers within your pie. Slightly el dente and naturally sweet when baked make them the perfect pie partner.
Full preparation
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First make the pastry:
Either by hand or in a food processor add the flour and caster sugar. Grate the frozen butter. If making by hand add the butter to the flour mix and work it in until you have a fine breadcrumb consistency. If you are making it in the food processor pulse in the butter bit by bit until you achieve breadcrumb consistency. Gradually add the egg yolks mixing all the time and then the milk, until it all comes together to make a smooth pastry.
Once the pastry has come together squash into a circle and cover with either grease proof paper or cling film and rest in the fridge for an hour.
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Meanwhile make the filling:
In a large deep pan on a medium heat, add the butter, sliced pink lady apples, nutmeg, cinnamon,lemon juice, muscovado sugar, vanilla paste, 2 cloves and cook out for 5 minutes to soften the apples and the spices. Whisk the water into the cornflour and then add to the pan with the Pink Lady® apples. Keep cooking for another 10 minutes. Leave to cool.
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Back to the pastry. Take out of the fridge, cut it nearly in half, with one half slightly larger, as you’ll need a bit more for the bottom pastry of the pie. Roll onto two pieces of grease proof paper, one on the bottom and one on the top, not adding flour as this dries out the pastry. Roll and rotate 90 degrees every few rolls, turn upside down and unpeel from the grease proof paper every now and then so it doesn’t stick. You want to roll the pastry out to about a 5mm thickness, and roll the larger piece of pastry so that its large enough to cover the base of your pie dish and roll the top pastry so that its wide enough to cover the top.
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Grease the bottom of a 24cm pie dish with butter and sprinkle with flour. Line the bottom of the pie dish with the largest pastry, with some overhanging the lip. Brush the base and sides of the pastry with the leftover egg whites. This effectively seals the pastry so it doesn’t get a soggy base.
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Add the cooled pink lady apple mix to the pie. You want to layer them so there are no gaps and the top is as flat as possible and in line with the rim of the pie dish. Lay the top pastry over the Pink Lady® slices.
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Trim any excess pastry off. Crimp the edge of the pie with your thumb and forefingers, squeezing the pastry together to seal and create a pleasing edge.
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With any excess pastry roll out and cut a desired pattern for your pie top. Brush the whole top with your egg milk glaze and sprinkle with the Demerara sugar. Leave in the fridge for 20 mins to avoiding shrinking pastry.
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Pop a baking tray into the middle of the oven and preheat to 180c. You want a hot tray for the pie to go on so it cooks the base of the pastry perfectly. Make a hole in the middle of the pie and get a square piece of tin foil and fold over four times and make it into a little funnel (see photo) and but it in the middle of the pie. Strip off long bits of tin foil and wrap the pie crust with it to protect it for the first 20 mins of baking.
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Pop your pie into the oven on the middle shelf and bake for 20 mins then remove the tin foil edges. Carry on baking for another 40mins but keep an eye on it in case it starts getting too brown in areas. If it does start to burn or catch cover with some tin foil or rotate.
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Once done leave on a cooling rack. Best to leave it for a couple of hours before cutting to let everything settle and hold its shape. Recommended to be served with some vanilla ice cream or some custard.
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The pastry can be made 5 days in advance. The pie can be assembled and left in the fridge for 2 days prior to baking. You can also freeze for 3 months, either from raw or cooked. Defrost at room temperature and reheat in the oven for 30 mins at 180c.
