ANNIE'S APPLE PIE

Warm, fragrant apple pie straight from the oven, lovingly placed on your kitchen bench and left to cool a little before cutting a slice for yourself and then drizzling over thick cream...can you taste it? I've made so many of these that I can practically do it blindfolded with my hands tied behind my back. LOL. Not really.

But there are two things I have that make the whole process much easier. First I have a food processor. If you don't have one of these, you might find the pastry a bit tricky. This recipe assumes you have one. I also have an apple peeler, a gadget where I stick the apple in a set of spikes and wind a handle and this razor blade thingy peels the apple in one long strip. So satisfying and so quick. If you don't have one of these, a regular vegetable peeler will do. Anyway enough chat. Let's do it!

INGREDIENTS

Flaky pastry

1 2/3 cups plain all purpose flour

pinch of salt

1 tbsp brown or white caster sugar

113g very cold unsalted butter, cubed

1 egg, beaten

Top crust finish

1 egg white

1 tbsp raw sugar

1 tsp cinnamon powder

Apple filling

7 Granny Smith apples (or any other tart apples), cut into 2" chunks

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

2 tbsp unsalted butter

3 tbsps raw granulated sugar

2 tsp cinnamon powder

a couple of grinds of nutmeg

2 tbsp unsalted butter

a knob of fresh ginger, grated, or

1 tsp powdered ginger

METHOD

Pastry: Using the metal blade attachment on your food processor, whizz flour, salt and sugar for a few seconds until until blended. Add cubed butter and whizz again until it's well incorporated. Add beaten egg and whizz again until the whole lots clumps together into one neat-dish ball. Wrap in cling film and put in fridge to chill.

Apple filling: Place all ingredients into a heavy, non reactive saucepan and stew for about 10 - 15 minutes, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon until all the apple chunks are softened, but not mushy. Let cool a little.

Divide your pastry into two pieces, one slightly bigger than the other. Place the bigger piece on a sheet of baking paper and re-wrap the other and put back into the fridge. Lay another sheet of baking paper over the top.

Using a heavy rolling pin, roll out your pastry, sandwiched between the two sheets of baking paper, to the size of your pie dish. Very gently, peel off the top layer of baking paper and flip your pastry into your pie dish, patching any holes as you go. It's very malleable so it should mould easily.

Spoon your apple filling into the bottom crust and mound it a little in the middle. Roll out the second bit of chilled pastry the same way and gently lay over the top, pinching the top and bottom layer together at the edges. Using a sharp knife slash your pastry in the middle three times to let air escape. Or, if you're feeling creative, use cookie cutters to create shapes to lay over the top as per the pic above.

Using a pastry brush, brush the egg white over the pastry and scatter the sugar and cinnamon over the top.

Bake in 200C oven for 15 minutes and then reduce hear to 180C and bake until top crust is crispy and golden - usually about another 45 minutes, maybe a little less depending on your oven.