Apple Pie

I always find myself with an obnoxious surplus of apples in the fruit basket. Dan loves having them in the house and will bring bags of the stuff home. Me, I'm a slow eater and I can never finish an apple before it turns brown. So at the end of the week, instead of letting it go to waste, I make something with it that I can eat as slowly as I want.

Sometimes I put slices of green apple into cocktails and sprinkle with sugar; sometimes I cover diced apple with custard; but apple pie is the most gratifying. It's so simple to make as well. All it takes is a bit of love and some handiwork.

Check out my post on The Curry Tiger (a curry beef pie with mash, peas and gravy) for the pastry recipe.

Apple filling

You'll need:

5 large apples
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup white sugar
¼ cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (never essence!)
1 teaspoon cornflour

Peel and cut apples into 1cm thick slices.

Place apples, sugars, water and vanilla in a small pot over low heat.

Simmer until the apples are just cooked through.

Remove apples and mix cornflour into the syrup.

Place apples and syrup into a shallow dish and cool completely in the fridge.

Put the filling in the pastry and create a lattice lid.

Fold down the edges to make a crust.

I glazed the top of the pastry with a ginger sugar syrup (thinly slice a 2cm knob of ginger and simmer gently in ¼ cup sugar and ¼ cup water for half an hour) and sprinkled it with demura sugar for a nice little crunch.

Bake at 220°C until golden brown (my oven took 40 minutes again).

Enjoy!