Apple Slab Pie
Serves 18 people
Pastry:
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4 cups plain all purpose flour
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2 teaspoons fine salt
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140g/5ozs. butter, cold and cubed
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300g/10.6 ozs. solid vegetable fat, cold and cubed (I used Superfry)
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1 cup iced water
Pie Filling:
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1.125 kgs/3.3pounds granny smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced thinly
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1 1/4 cups sugar
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2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (I used 2 teaspoons of speculoos spices leftover from this recipe)
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4 tablespoons lemon juice
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6 tablespoons tapioca flour or cornflour/cornstarch
Glaze:
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2/3 cup reserved apple juice (from filling)
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1 teaspoon unsalted butter, melted
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1 1/2 cups icing or powdered sugar
You will also need a rectangle jelly or lamington tin measuring 39 x 26cm (15.6 x 10.4inches)
Buyer's tip: tapioca flour can be found at any Asian grocery store or in the Asian aisle of your grocery store.
Step 1 - Make the pastry first. In a large food processor, add the flour and salt and pulse to combine. Then add cubed cold butter and vegetable fat and pulse until it resembles cornmeal. Using the funnel, trickle the ice water into the dough, stopping as soon as it starts to come together and ball up (you may stop just shy of using the whole cup).
Divide dough in two in a rectangle shape and wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for two hours. You can also substitute this with bought shortcrust pastry-you'll need about four sheets of it but this pastry is really quite special so if you can make it, I urge you to :). Sorry, that's just me being pushy again ;)
Step 2 - For the pie filling: combine apples, sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice in a bowl. Let sit, tossing occasionally until apples release their juices, about fifteen minutes or so. Press gently on apples to extract liquid and reserve the juice.
Step 3 - Preheat oven to 190C/374F. This is a soft dough with a lot of butter and fat in it so it gets soft quickly. I found this easiest to roll when it was out of the fridge about five minutes but not for longer. Between two sheets of baking parchment, roll out one lot of dough to fit the baking tray making sure to leave some for the sides.
Step 4 - Gently place it in the tin (no need to butter as this is a buttery dough already). I found that I could roll it gently while in the tin too using a small non stick rolling pin. Sprinkle the layer of pastry with four of the tablespoons of tapioca or cornflour and add the remaining two tablespoons to the drained apples. Arrange the apple pieces over the crust evenly over bottom crust, pressing lightly to flatten. Place in fridge.
Step 5 - Roll out the other lot of dough and if it is getting too soft, roll it out and then refrigerate it for 15-20 minutes to make it easier to get off the paper. Place dough over the pie and trim edges-don't worry if it isn't perfect as you'll end up putting a glaze over it. Seal edges and crimp with a fork and prick with fork to allow steam to escape. Bake for 45-55 minutes until the crust is golden. Cool for one hour to allow the juices to be absorbed.
Step 6 - Make the glace icing while the pie is cooling by sifting the icing or powdered sugar and adding the butter and the warmed apple juice. Mix to combine and spoon over the pie and allow to set.