That is how author Simon Hopkinson describes the pie in his cookery book "Week In Week Out" and if you take a little time to follow his recipe you will find he is not mistaken!
I baked this at the weekend for our sunday lunch guests, and all agreed it was the finest apple pie we had tasted - thank you Simon Hopkinson!
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(please note - I have somewhat condensed his instructions for simplicity and to reflect what I did in practice)
*
800 - 900g Bramley Apples (2 very large ones)
5 cloves (I omitted these as none of us like them)
juice of 1 small lemon
175g golden caster sugar (25g of which will be sprinkled on top)
1 tbsp milk
375 g ready made puff pastry *
a little milk for brushing pastry
a little butter for greasing tin
***
Grease a 20cm loose bottomed cake tin. (NB: I used a 22cm tin and used 500g pastry instead). Pre-heat oven to 180C/350F/gas 4.
Peel, core and then slice off small pieces of apple into a large bowl containing 150g of the sugar and lemon juice (I made mine small irregular shaped chunks rather than slices about 1" big, and they cooked beautifully soft without going to mush). Stir regularly as you slice to stop the apples turning brown.
Mix well then stir in the cornflour. Add cloves if using.
Roll out 2/3rds of the pastry to line the tin, allowing it to spill over the top - press pastry gently round inside bottom of tin so it lies flat.
Tip in the apples and lightly press down.
Brush a little milk around the pastry top edge.
Roll out remaining pastry a little more thinly than the base, and drape over pie, lightly pressing the two pastry edges together. Cut flush to top of tin all the way round, then knock up the pastry edges to from a crinkled edge.
Brush top of pie with milk, sprinkle over the remaining 25g golden sugar, and make a few incisions in the centre of the pastry lid to let out the steam.
Place on a baking sheet or tray and bake for 20 mins, then reduce temperature to 150C/300F/Gas 2 and bake for a further 35 to 45 mins - pie crust should be "well-stippled with semi-caramelised sugar crystals".
Leave to cool to luke-warm before un-moulding, then serve with your favourite cream, vanilla ice-cream, or custard!
We had extra thick double cream with ours, but single cream or marscapone or anything would have been wonderful with this yummy apple pie.
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Enjoy!!
Well, I had no time at all this weekend in my sewing room, but when I've finished this post I hope to get in there for an hour or two.
I thought I'd introduce a bit of gritty realism here and show you where I create - I have seen many blogs where people show these wonderfully large airy TIDY work spaces, which are to me but a dream.
My reality is somewhat less picturesque, cramped in the smallest room of the house under the eaves (yes, smaller than the bathrooms even!) and although I do periodically blitz and organise, I would usually rather being making than tidying - as long as I can lay my hands on that one elusive piece of fabric or trim that I know I have somewhere, then that's good enough for me - and when I can't, I know its time for a tidy.
There are several things I'm working on at the moment - this is one of them.
Usual blurry picture (new camera please!!!!!!) but it will be an apron (either peg or cooks apron) when finished, one of several made from vintage linen.
Well, I'm off to fight my way into the sewing room, alone - Logan now prefers to stay out of the way on the chair on the landing as he finds he is always in the way when I move from sewing machine to cutting/ironing area!
From this vantage point he can see when I move out of the room and be ready to jump down and follow instantly.
My lovely faithful little hound - on my lap asleep as I type!
