Apple | theflourmill

I never was too fond of the apple pie, until I tasted one earlier this year, bought in a Dutch supermarket in Amsterdam- it was an easy heat and eat pie and I loved it. I could only imagine how much better it would taste fresh.The cakey crumbly base with the cinnamon apple filling- it was amazing. It took me a while to find a recipe which would be close to the Dutch apple pies I had in the Netherlands. And it was perfect ! It is no doubt one of the best desserts I have had. I had it for breakfast for the next three days! had it with custard, had it warm, had it straight out of the fridge. I can’t wait to make it again actually!

You will need:

180 g butter, cut into cubes
120 g soft brown sugar
pinch of salt
1 egg, beaten lightly
300 g self raising flour
For the filling:
5-6 apples small to medium sized (I used 1 Gala and rest English dessert apples but I guess most apples would be alright)
Zest of ½ lemon
Juice of ¼ lemon, about 1 ½-2 tbsp
60 g soft brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon powder
a little less than ¼ tsp of grated nutmeg
1 tsp cornflour

Pre-heat the oven to 180 ˚C fan. Adjust the temperature according to your oven.
Now, in a food processor, mix the butter and brown sugar till it is creamed together, it lightens in colour.
Add a pinch of salt, pulse the food processor to mix. Keep aside just a little bit of beaten egg- enough to brush the pie in the end, and add the rest of the of the egg to the mix in the food processor for a minute.
Add the flour in 3 parts till the whole mix comes together into dough. It takes a few minutes, once it comes together then do not over mix. Keep this aside while you make the filling.
Peel the apples and cut into bite sized pieces. Mix the apple with the rest of the filling ingredients.
Now in a springform cake tin, uniformly press two third of the dough along the base and side of the tin.
Add the apple filling and press it down with the back of a spatula. Now spread the 1/3 of the dough, crumbling it uniformly on top of the apples. Brush with the beaten egg that was kept aside and sprinkle about a tbsp of brown sugar.
Bake at 180 ˚C for 45 minutes. If the top starts to get deep brown just cover it with a bit of baking sheet.
Cool the pie in the tin. Serve it warm with custard.