Apple Pie

I never thought I'll bake my own apple pie. Afterall, they're so readily available in supermarkets, so affordable and so yummy too! Just pop them into the oven as you start dinner and 1 hour later, dessert is ready!



However, my mum bought a bag of 8 apples (that were on the verge of rotting) for $1. I was under pressure to puree them for XX but as he still had a jar in the freezer, I decided to steam 4 apples for him only. I decided I could perhaps try to make an apple pie, if it's not too difficult, since the oven will be heated up for baked potatoes. I hurriedly searched the internet (my favourite source of recipes these days) for an apple pie recipe. There were plenty.



Many recipes also teach you how to make the crust as well but I did not have one important ingredient - shortening. To be honest, I have no idea what that was, plus I was also lazy lah. What I do have are frozen shortcrust pastry and puff pastry. So I took 1 of each out to defrost.



For the apples, I soaked them in some water and lemon juice. Then I mix together:

• 1 cup of sugar,


• 1 tsp of cinnamon powder and


• 2 tbsp of flour.

The recipe also asked for cider vinegar but I don't have that, so I skipped it.

Method:

• Drain the apples and mix the sugar mixture over the apples.



• Line the base of a pyrex baking dish with the short crust pastry and trimmed the edges.



• Put the apples into the dish.



• Before putting on the cover, dollop a few spoons of butter over the apples.



• Seal the pie by pressing the puff pastry onto the short crust pastry with a fork.



• Cover the edge of the pie with aluminium foil. This will prevent the edge from burning as it bakes. Remove the foil about 10 mins before it's done.



• Bake at 200C for 50 - 60 mins.
  

(Place a lined baking tray below the apple pie rack in case the apple bubbles over. However mine didn't.)





The result was a nice and warm, sweet and soft apple dessert. However the crust didn't hold up very well. Not sure if the apples were too little or the crust too soaked by the apples. It collapsed as soon as it was cut and the apple sauce started oozing out.






I had just finished dinner but could not resist having a slice immediately. Neither could my dad. Surprisingly, KK liked it. He liked the apple pies from MacDonalds, but didn't really fancy those baked pie types when I baked those from Sara Lee. However, this time, he actually competed with XX to eat it. That's great!





The omission of the cider vinegar did not seem to affect the taste. I just find it too sweet, so next time, I'll reduce the sugar to 3/4 cup or even 1/2 cup. My mum also commented that the base of the pastry don't seemed too cooked. Perhaps it'll help if I baked it a little first before putting the apples inside. Anyway, not too bad for a first attempt and ridiculously simple too.