Dutch Apple Pie
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 1.5 hours
Serves: 8-10 people
For Pastry
- 150g/5ozs plain all purpose flour
- 25g/1oz caster or superfine sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Pinch salt
- 150g/5ozs cold butter, cubed (plus extra for greasing the dish)
- 60ml/2flozs chilled ice water
For Filling
- 1.5kgs/3.3lbs apples (mix of Pink Lady and Granny Smith)
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 2 tablespoons/40g/1.4ozs butter
- 2/3 cup/150g/5ozs white sugar
- 2 tablespoons flour or cornflour
- 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- Pinch salt
For Crumble
- 120g/4ozs plain all purpose flour
- 100g/3.5ozs brown sugar
- 40g/1.4ozs slivered almonds or chopped pecans
- 20g/0.7ozs shredded coconut
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 130g/4.6ozs butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- Pinch of salt
Step 1 - Make the pastry. Place the flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a food processor and pulse until combined. Add the butter and pulse until you get a fine, sandy texture - tiny little lumps of butter are fine (see above), they make for a beautifully flakey pastry. Add the water, don't add it all at once, start with 3/4 of the water and keep adding until it starts to come together. It should be clumpy but cling together when kneaded. Take out of the food processor, knead it into a ball (if it still won't come together add some drops of water). Then cover with cling film and rest in the fridge for 1 hour.
Step 2 - Butter a large pie dish very well on the base and sides. Roll out the dough between two sheets of parchment rolling it out large enough to reach out up and above the sides of the dish. Fold the rolled pastry in half lightly and gently lift the pastry onto the pie dish and then unfold to spread out. Press down so that it gets into the corners of the pie dish, trim the sides and then crimp the edges. Cover with cling film and place back in the fridge for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 200C/400F and spray a sheet of foil with oil and place it on top of the pastry oiled side down. Add pie weights and bake for 15 minutes with the weights. Remove from the oven and bake without weights for 10 minutes. The pastry should be set and almost fully cooked.
Step 3 - While the pastry is resting and cooling you can get started on the apples. Peel and core all of the apples and place them in a large pot of lemon water to prevent discolouration. Slice each apple into even slices (the thickest setting on the mandolin is best) and place in the lemon water. Drain the water and add butter to a large cast iron pot. Add the apple slices, sugar, lemon zest, cinnamon, vanilla, salt and simmer gently for around 10-15 minutes until the apples can bend but are not completely soft (and definitely not mushy). Add the flour in and allow to thicken the juice. At this stage you can cool these apples completely and refrigerate them in an airtight container and use them within the next 1-2 days.
Step 4 - Place the apples in the pie base. I like to lay the slices flat so that it cuts better and looks nice and neat. Just smooth them out if they curl up and make well packed layers of apples with the sauce.
Step 5 - To make the crumble topping mix the flour and brown sugar together in a medium sized bowl breaking up any sugar lumps. Stir in the nuts, coconut, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Melt the butter and add to the vanilla and then pour this over the rest of the mixture and stir to combine. It should be clumpy and moist. You can also make this crumble topping 1-2 days ahead of time and store it in the fridge. Spread out on top of the apples and bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden.