Apple Pie
"There's nothing like the smell of a Dutch Apple Pie"
If we get visitors that we want to make feel instantly at home, I bake an apple pie. Everybody associates the sweet smell of apples and cinnamon with safety and community.
Below you find the recipe, but in all honesty, I generally wing it and sometimes add pecan or walnuts. Tara, my Granny, likes to add some apricot jam to the top when she does the finishing touch. I encourage you to make it your own and try out additions, just the way you like it!
Here's the recipe:
Ingredients:
For the Crust:
200 gr/0.5lbs All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
125 gr/4oz Granulated Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
1 Egg
125 gr/4oz Butter (room temperature)
Pinch of Salt
For the Filling:
6 Granny Smith Apples
1/2 cup Raisins
3 tsp Cinnamon
1 tbsp Granulated Sugar
1 Preheat the oven on 375F/190C. You can use a baking tin, but I prefer a pie ring on top of a Silpat as the bottom. This makes the bottom dryer and crispier. Butter the ring and dust it with some flour.
2 Peel the apples, remove the core, and cut into pieces. Mix in the sugar and cinnamon and add the raisins.
3 In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, vanilla essence, butter and a pinch of salt. Add only half of the egg, lightly whisk it, and save the rest for the finishing touch.
I like to use my hands to kneed the dough, but you can, of course, use a kitchen machine. The dough needs to become firm. If you kneed it too long and the butter gets too soft, and then I put it in the fridge for 5 minutes to cool down. It will be better to handle.
4 Dust the Silpat with a little bit of flour. Use a 1/4 of the dough for the bottom, and use a rolling pin to make it flat. Dust a bit of flour on top so it doesn't stick to the rolling pin.
Use 1/2 of the dough for the ring. This needs a little creativity with your fingers as to how thick the side needs to be.
5 Add the apple mix in. Gently press it down so and get as many apples in as possible. Make sure the raisins are spread throughout.
6 For the finishing touch roll out the remaining 1/4 dough and cut it into 1/2 inch strips.
Place some of the strips evenly divided horizontally and do the same vertically. Then brush the remaining egg over the pieces so they will become nicely brown in the oven.
7 Place the pie in the oven and bake for 60 minutes, till golden brown. If it looks too pale, add another 5-10 minutes. You can also turn off the oven and let it dry in the oven if it looks too wet.
Otherwise, take it out and let it cool down on a baking tray.