Apple Crumble Pie

Absolutely must be served with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream!

Equipment needed :

Pie dish - I have a Le Creuset Fluted Pie Dish, which is perfect for this size recipe. But anything in the 30cm diameter region would work, square or round

Rolling pin & board

Mixing bowls

Foil

Ingredients :

Crust - (my cheat)

1 pack premade Shortcrust Pastry, defrosted - look for these next to the puff pastry in PnP, Woolies, Spar etc

Crumble -

80g Cake Flour

80g Almond Flour

60g Oats

1 tsp cinnamon

pinch salt (only if using unsalted butter)

100g cold butter cut into cubes

100g dark brown sugar (see note below)

Apple filling -

5 or 6 medium sized apples - you need to fill your pie pan. I find about 600g apples works for me.

Juice of half a lemon, more if you prefer

1/2 tsp vanilla - more if you use essence, otherwise perfect if you use paste.

1 tsp cinnamon

50g dark brown sugar (see note below)

Method :

Start with the crumble -

Whisk almond flour, cake flour & cinnamon together in a bowl. Add oats, sugar and salt & mix through. Using your fingers rub the butter into the dry mixture, until the whole mixture becomes crumbly and can hold together. You shouldn't see any bits of butter. Keep in the fridge until ready to use

Roll out your shortcrust pastry and press into your pie tin. Trim right at the top and set aside. Note - I don't blind bake my pastry before I pour the filling in. Probably worth doing to avoid a soggy bottom. Ha.

For the apple filling start by placing all ingredients bar the apples in a mixing bowl. Next quickly peel and core the apples, storing them in a bowl of water until ready to slice. I use a mandolin to get super fine slices, but a sharp knife will work just as well.

Add to the other ingredients and mix all well with your hands.

Preheat oven to 180degC. Mine is fan assisted.

Arrange your apple slices in your pie crust, taking care not to add the liquid in as well. Pack as tightly as you can.

Pour all the crumble over the top and press down lightly, do not push or flatten. Cover the top with a piece of foil and pop into the heated oven to bake for 25 minutes.

Remove foil and bake for another 30 minutes uncovered until the top is crispy and the mixture is bubbling through. Take out, get your vanilla ice cream ready & dig in!

Notes :

When I make this pie I use Muscovado sugar or Demerara sugar mixed with light brown sugar. These are pretty unusual sugars to have, but worth keeping a bag in the fridge. Especially if you're keen to try your hand at Chelsea Buns, which I will be adding to this recipe list soon. You can just use brown sugar, if you don't want to go find either of these..

Apples will brown pretty quickly if left out. I peel and core all of them first, and keep them in water until I'm ready to slice. But it shouldn't make too much of a difference, seeing as you're baking everything anyway. You can leave this step out, if you want.

Almond meal can be replaced with more cake flour. Replace with about 60g at first, to ensure the mixture isn't too dry