Apple Pie

There are certain distinct advantages of being sick. For one, the husband waits on you hand and foot and doesn’t let you do a thing! (Big Smile :D :D). So, the bug hit my tummy last weekend and although I was sick, upset and irritated that my weekend got wasted, I was secretly happy to see that the husband cooked all meals, supervised the cleaning and kept things in perfect order in the house…..maybe I should let him do this more often :P.

So, by Sunday evening, I had rested and rusted from sleeping too much. My hands were itching to do something. And yeah, I was kind of feeling sorry for the husband and wanted to treat him to something warm and comforting for all the care he had taken while I was indisposed.

I had some apples in the fridge and the immediate though that struck me was ‘Apple Pie’!! A few nights back, the husband and I had watched an apple pie recipe on TV and I decided to recreate the same recipe (for its sheer no-fuss value!). So go ahead, try it…..

Ingredients:

For the filling:

Apples – 2 large, peeled, cored and sliced (My pie dish is smaller in size. In case you have a big pie dish, increase the number of apples accordingly)

All-purpose flour – 2 tbsp

Brown Sugar – 1 tsp

Lemon juice – 1tbsp

Cinnamon powder – 1 tbsp

Nutmeg powder – ¼ tsp

Butter (softened) – 2 tsp

For the dough:

All-purpose flour – 1 ½ cup

Sugar – 1 tsp

Butter – 1 cup cut in cubes (cold from the fridge….it should be firm)

Salt – 1 tsp

Water – 5 tbsp

Method:

Start by making the pastry dough. Mix 1 ½ cups flour, salt and sugar first. Then add the cold butter. Use your fingers to mix the butter with the flour so that the mixture starts resembling bread crumbs. Add 5 tbsp water and knead the dough till it becomes smooth and pliable. Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for 10-15 minutes.

In the meanwhile, take a bowl and mix the apple slices, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon powder and nutmeg powder gently. Take care not to break the apple slices. Pour the lemon juice over the mixture and mix lightly.

Take the firm dough from the fridge and break it into two halves. Knead both halves. Spread a plastic sheet / cling film on the rolling surface and place one half of the dough in the middle. Fold the plastic over the dough and then roll out the dough which is in between the plastic wrap. The disc should be an inch bigger in diameter than your pie dish. Do this for both halves of the dough.

Remove the wrap gently and place one rolled out dough in the pie dish. Flatten it carefully and fold along the edges of the mould so that it sticks to it and covers the dish completely. Trim the edges by removing extra dough and put the pie dish in the fridge to set.

Once firm, make piercings with a fork all over so that it bakes easily. Brush 1 tsp butter all over it and fill it with the apple mixture evenly. Add 2 tbsp of the sweet apple mixture water on top. Dot the mixture with a few pieces of butter.

Place the second rolled out dough on top of the filling covering the pie dish completely. Seal and trim the edges. Cut slits in the top crust for steam to escape. You may use the leftover dough from the edges to carve a design and decorate the top crust. I cut out long and thin strips and created a lattice pattern.

Brush the top crust with a little melted butter before baking. Bake for 35-40 minutes in pre-heated oven at 200°C.

The husband thought my pie looked better than the one we watched on the TV show. My BIL and my cousin were there too and the pie disappeared within 5 minutes of appearing on the table. I saw their smiles and felt the love….that warm, comforting feeling envelop me. Or maybe it was that pie…..warm, comforting and absolutely delicious J.

Love,

Anjali D