Apple pie

Ingredients

• Oven temp: 325 F/160 C
• Apples (preferably sour), stewed 500g
• Cinnamon (Dalchini) powdered 1/8 tsp
• Sugar 4 tbsp
• Lemon juice, to taste or 1 tbsp
• Butter 1 tbsp
• For Short Crust Pastry
• Refined flour (Maida) 2 cups (240 g)
• Butter ¾ cup ( 180 g)
• Vinegar 1 tsp
• Egg 1 OR
• Milk ¼ cup
• Salt ¼ tsp
• Sugar 1 tsp
• Baking powder 1 tsp
• A pie dish, 20 cm (8”) in diameter
• 1 tbsp slightly beaten egg or milk to glaze the pie

Preparation

• 1. Add the sugar, lemon juice and flavoring to the apples.

• 2. Make the short crust pastry: Sieve the flour and mix in the salt, sugar and baking powder. Place the butter in the centre and cut into it continuously with a blunt knife, covering it with the flour all the time.

• 3. When the butter is into small pieces, crumble the mixture with the fingertips as lightly as you can, and lift your fingers above the mixture so as to incorporate air into the dough, thus making it lighter.

• 4. Do this till mixture resembles fine bread-crumbs (little coarser than sand).

• 5. Add vinegar and egg or cold milk and mix into stiff dough (which does not have to be smooth). Use cold water only if required. The dough has to ‘gather together’.

• 6. Wrap in cling foil or cover and keep in a cool place to rest about 15 minutes.

• 7. Roll out a little more than half the dough about ¼ cm (1/8”) thick, into a large enough circle, to cover the base and the sides of the pie dish.

• 8. Dust the pastry base with flour, and then fill it with the apples. Dot the filling with butter.

• 9. Roll out the other portion of the dough, as thick, to cover the top of the pie. Wet the edges, and cover the pie, pressing the edges together, to seal. Make a decorative edge by pinching the edges at regular intervals.

• 10. Prick the upper crust with a fork to allow the steam to escape, while cooking. Glaze the surface with the beaten egg or milk and bake in a pre-heated oven for about 45-60 minutes or until golden. It shrinks away from the sides of the dish when it is done.

• 11. When done, remove it from the oven and sprinkle with castor sugar or icing sugar.