Perfect apple pie
- Prepare
- less than 30 mins
- Cook
- 30 mins to 1 hour
- Serve
- Serves 8–10
The Hairy Bikers' Bramley apple pie recipe will help you perfect your pastry. A deep pie dish is essential for fitting in as many hot, fluffy apples as you can. Serve with vanilla ice cream.
For this recipe you will need a deep 1.2 litre/2 pint pie dish with a wide rim.
Ingredients
For the pastry
- 400g/14oz plain flour, plus extra rolling
- 2 tbsp caster sugar
- 1 lemon, zest only
- 250g/10oz cold butter, cut into cubes
- 1 free-range egg, beaten with 2 tbsp cold water, plus 1 free-range egg, beaten, to glaze
For the filling
- 150g/5½oz golden caster sugar, plus 1 tbsp for sprinkling
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tbsp cornflour
- 600g/1lb 5oz Bramley cooking apples, peeled, cored, sliced
Method
For the pastry, put the flour, sugar and lemon zest in a bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the beaten egg and stir with a round-bladed knife until the mixture forms a dough.
Set aside one-third of the pastry for the lid. Roll out the remaining pastry on a lightly floured surface until the thickness of a pound coin and 5–7cm/2–3in larger than the pie dish. Lift the pastry over the rolling pin and lower it gently into the pie dish.
Press the pastry firmly into the dish and up the sides, making sure there are no air bubbles. Chill the pastry in the fridge while you prepare the filling.
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6. Place a baking tray into the oven to preheat.
For the filling, mix the sugar, cinnamon and cornflour in a large bowl. Stir in the apples until coated.
Put the apple filling in the pie dish, making sure that it rises above the sides of the dish (particularly in the middle). Brush the rim of the pastry with beaten egg.
Roll out the reserved ball of pastry to make the pie lid. Cover the pie with the pastry lid and press the edges together firmly to seal.
Using a sharp knife, trim off the excess pastry, then gently crimp all around the edge. Make a few small holes in the centre of the pie with the tip of a knife or a skewer. Glaze the top with beaten egg.
Lightly knead the pastry trimmings and re-roll. Cut into leaf shapes and arrange all around the edge of the pie, slightly overlapping each other. Glaze with more egg.
Sprinkle the pie with sugar and bake in the centre of the oven for 45–55 minutes or until golden-brown all over and the apples are tender.
Serve warm or cold with cream, custard or ice cream.
Recipe tips
A 1.2 litre/2 pint pie dish is a typically a deep 27cm/10¾in round pie dish.
To prepare the apples, peel them first, then cut into quarters and slice out the core. Thinly slice to about 5mm/¼ in thick. If you want to prepare the apples in advance, put the sliced apples in a bowl of water mixed with lemon juice to prevent them going brown. When ready to use, drain the apples and pat dry using a clean tea towel.
The cornflour is added to the apple filling as Bramley apples can release a lot of liquid as they cook. The cornflour will absorb this and make a lovely thick sauce that won't make the pastry soggy.
When you add the apple filling it might look as if there's too much, but remember that they will collapse as they cook.
