Best Ever Apple Pie

Sadly, I don't have memories of the smell of apple pie coming from my grand mother's kitchen. I have very little memory of my paternal grandmother. I know she had a blue budgerigar in a cage because I remember it biting my finger. Unfortunately my grandmother did not have good health and became blind in her eighties.   

But I do have great memories of my next door neighbour's fantastic apple trees.

My sister and I weren't allowed to hop over the fence and pinch the apples because the neighbours had a mad dog called Bryn. We were terrified of that dog and would never venture into their garden. 

But when our neighbour kindly gave us a few of the fallen apples, I knew it was time for mum to make an apple pie. And I watched as she made the pastry, peeled the apples, added sugar and turned that mountain of lush fruit into the most amazing dessert.

As a kid you don't really care if the pastry is bit rustic, in fact the more rustic the more mouth watering you know it will be and once that golden pastry was lifted from the oven, you couldn't wait until dinner time when you knew you would get a slice of that perfect pie, topped with ice cream or cream.

My favourite dessert as a kid was apple pie and rice pudding - oh that beautiful, slightly burnt, brown skin on the top of the rice and a hint of nutmeg and butter. 

Rhubarb and apple figured highly because dad grew heaps of rhubarb, so often Sunday roast was followed by rhubarb and custard. What was your favourite dessert?

There are so many delicious recipes on the web for rhubarb; spiced, roasted, devilled, tarts and I think you will find a couple on my blog, so there's plenty to choose from.

I don't make pies that often, but when I look over at the bowl of Granny Smith apples that I have just bought, I know it's time to recreate a little magic in my kitchen. Just like my mum did. 

APPLE PIE

Ingredients

700g prepared Granny Smith apples

250g plain flour

125g unsalted butter

1 teaspoon icing sugar

2 tablespoons iced water

1 cinnamon stick

pinch of cloves

2 tablespoons water

zest of a lemon

1 tablespoon milk

Prepare a pie plate by rubbing with melted butter, then place in fridge until ready to use.

Make the pastry by sifting flour, icing sugar and then rubbing the butter into the flour, either by hand or food processor. I prefer to do it by hand. Add enough water to bring it all together in a soft dough. Now cover in plastic and let rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

While the pastry is resting peel, core and chop apples, add to a saucepan with a little water, lemon zest, cinnamon stick and a pinch of cloves. Cook for around 10 minutes until they are slightly softened. No need to add any sugar. Remove from the pan and cool. 

While the apple is cooling , take pastry from fridge, divide in half and roll out to fit your prepared pie plate. Line your pie plate with one half of the pastry and add the apples, removing the cinnamon stick first.

Pile the apples in so you have a nice high pie. Wet the rim of the pastry edge with milk, ready to stick the top down.

Add the pastry lid and seal the edges by pressing them together. Cut off excess pastry. Brush the top of the pie with milk, making a couple of tiny cuts in the top of the pastry for the steam to escape.

Place in a pre heated moderate oven 180º/350F for around 25 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown.

Serve with cream, ice cream or just by itself.

Spiced Pear and Apple Muffins

• I have promised myself that this is the last batch of muffins I am going to make for one month! Why? Because it is time to kick in my New Year's Resolution! I've waited until February for this.

• Are you one of those people that manages to break their resolutions on January 1st? or are you a die hard, true to your word, amazingly resolute person?

 How is it possible to battle the bulge when you have a great plate of deliciously spicy muffins staring at you every time you go to the fridge or freezer. So for one month I declare my place to be cake, muffin and dessert free (unless it is very,very low calorie) so I can get back to my intermittent fasting.

Don't get me wrong; most of the sweetness in these muffins comes from the fruit, but it is so very tempting to scoff more than enough for ones good.  If you have resolve - can withstand the temptation, then I think you should make at least one batch. Call a friend, visit your neighbours or have yourself a delicious morning get together. Whichever way you choose to share these, I am absolutely certain they will be a definite hit.

• 
  
  

  Spiced Pear and Apple Muffin

• Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 100ml vegetable oil
• 180ml semi-skimmed milk
• 60g  light soft brown sugar
• 60g caster sugar
• 300g  self raising flour
• 1tsp rounded, ground ginger
• 1tsp rounded, ground cinnamon
• 1 large cooking apple (Granny Smith) peeled and diced
• 1 - 2 pears peeled and diced
• 100ml  maple syrup - optional

This made 12 good sized muffins

Preheat oven to 200°C, fan 180°C/ 350 º Line a muffin tray with paper muffin cases or you can cut up baking paper and line the muffin pan.

Using a whisk, beat egg in a large bowl with the oil and milk. Add the two sugars and whisk until dissolved.

Sift flour, ginger and cinnamon into another bowl. Add the diced apples and pears to the flour mixture and stir through.

Use a wooden spoon, combine the egg mixture with the flour, ginger, cinnamon and fruit. Fill the muffin cases two thirds full and bake in the middle of the oven for 20-25 minutes until lightly golden and cooked through.

 Transfer to a cooling rack. You can either leave the muffins to cool down completely or if you decide to use Maple Syrup, take a skewer or tooth pick and prick holes in the top of each muffin, while they are still warm. Trickle maple syrup over each muffin allowing it to sink through the holes and into the centre. Leave to cool or eat while still warm.

Tiny Little Apple Puddings

Hey Ho! Christmas will be upon us soon and I will be taking a couple of weeks off, so I am rushing to get my last two posts written before then.

Donna Hay made these beautiful little puddings and I really wanted to try them out. Gorgeous as they were, I found them a little too sweet for my taste. They were very quick and easy to make requiring just what you have in your fruit bowl and pantry. I found that this recipe made 8 puddings but if you use ramekins to make them instead of muffin tins you would probably only get 6.

I also found the cooking time to be less than quoted in the recipe, but again that will vary from oven to oven.

So if you are looking to impress a few of your friends without spending a lot of time in the kitchen, then try this. Served with ice cream or cream or Crème Fraîche, life couldn't be any sweeter

Little Tiny Apple Puddings

Please note the changes I made to the recipe are in italics.

Ingredients

1 very small  Pink Lady Apple
100 g caster sugar
110g unsalted butter
1 teaspoon Golden Syrup
100g self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
100g butter melted
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla


Grease 6 ramekins or 8 large muffin tins

• Take the apple and cut it into 1 cm rings, leave the peel on
• Add 1 teaspoon of Golden Syrup to the muffin pan then place a slice of apple on top of the Golden Syrup.
• Add batter mixture until it reaches the top of the muffin pan (they will rise a little higher than this)
•  

Leave in the tin for around 5 minutes, take out and invert on to a small serving plate to show the apple on the top and serve.