Gorge Apple Pie
Updated: Apr 9, 2020
One of the best Apple Pie recipes you'll EVER try. I've worked with this recipe for years and altered it to be, in my opinion, even more AMAZING.
Hello my loves! Here's the first recipe I baked on my Drag-Baking-Livestreams that (for now) we're calling Dona Bakes! I've added the full recorded stream just below this paragraph however I am working on editing the videos down to something a little more palatable but until then, please enjoy this recipe!
Most apple pie recipes I've made in the past consisted of a pie base (most saying buy pre-made doughs), sliced cooking apples tossed in a cinnamon sugar and baked closed. This recipe however is quite different.
Firstly, I like to make the dough myself. The recipe for the dough is big enough to give you room to be creative with the top of your pie. You can make fancy lattice work, create pretty leaves or just completely cover the top and poke some air holes, the choice is yours! (but definitely save this pastry recipe as it can save lives x )
Secondly, we make a sweet sugar roux that we pour over the apples before we cover the pie. The brown sugar helps give a caramelized molasses sweet flavor that stands out and overtime, days after baking, just tastes better and better.
Lastly, the apples I use are Granny Smith apples as I like to combat that sweet roux with a nice tart crisp apple. You can use whatever apples you like, this recipe works with cooking apples which also have a tart flavor but tend to lose their structure OR you can use something like a Pink lady apple which, although sweet, would be delicious anyways!
Alright, I'll shurrup and let you go ahead and try out this recipe.
Gorge Apple Pie
This recipes makes a 12 inch pie with a lattice top, you can reduce the ingredients to fit smaller dishes if you like!
For the Pastry 250g Butter 560g Plain Flour 60g Icing Sugar 3 Eggs
For the Filling 8 Granny Smith Apples 80g Butter 30g Plain Flour 60ml Water 100g White Sugar 110g Brown Sugar
Firstly make the Pastry as it needs to rest! In a large food processor mix together the butter, plain flour and icing sugar until it resembles breadcrumbs and there are no more lumps of butter. Add your eggs and blitzed again until a dough is formed, then tip it out onto a table top and lightly form together. Pin this dough down to a circle, wrap in clingfilm and let it rest in the fridge. (You can leave this to rest overnight or freeze immediately and use whenever you need it after defrosting!) As my food processor was too small on stream, I did it in two batches. You can also use a mixer or your hands to make this dough however a food processor is the easiest.
While this dough rests you can start to peel, remove the core and slice the apples. Get a large bowl of water and squeeze in half of a lemon to help prevent the apples from browning. Get a peeler and peel each of the apples, leaving the peeled apples in the water while you peel the next. Either use a corer tool or just slice the apple in half, then half again and carefully slice out the core diagonally. You can watch the VOD to see how I did it myself!
When you slice the apples, try and slice them thinly as it'll help cook them all evenly when baking. You can use a mandela or if you really don't feel comfortable slicing them, just buy frozen sliced apples. When you have the apples sliced, place them back into the water and use a plate to help submerge the apples.
Now you can preheat your oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/390°F. Next get a small saucepan and add in your butter for the filling and let this melt at a low temperature. Once melted add in your flour and stir until completely mixed with a wooden spoon. Continue to simmer for about 10 minutes at a low temperature to help cook it off the flavour taste making sure to stir often to prevent burning. Add in your sugars and some of the water and stir until combined. Add in the rest of the water and let simmer again at a low temperature for roughly 10-15 minutes while you prepare your pastry base.
Grab your pie dish, mine is 12inches, you don't need to do anything with the dish as the dough will naturally demould.
Now lightly dust your surface with flour and take out half of the pastry dough. With your hands, knead it slightly into a round shape and start to roll it back and fourth, moving the dough around after each couple rolls to prevent it from moving. Use your dish to measure if it is the right size, when you've reached the size you feel fits, use the rolling pin to roll up the dough and unroll it over the dish. Press it into the mould and use excess dough to fill in any holes or patches that didn't get covered. Use a small knife to carefully trim around the edges!
Drain and toss your apples into a sieve or a colinder and press down with a paper towel to remove as much water as possible. Fill your pie base with your apples as evenly as possible and then pour over your sugar sauce. Try and get this sugar sauce to cover as much of the apples as possible!
Next you are ready to finish the top of the pie, you can just roll out the leftover dough on a floured surface, eggwash the edge of the pie and cover with the dough, crimp the edges with a fork and poke steam holes and that would be just fine.. however, we here in Dona's Cupboard are very bougie, so we are doing a lattice top on the pie.
Dust your surface lightly and pin out the other half of the dough like previously but aim to half the dough the length of the pie but the width to cut out 10 slices. I used a ruler and marked 2cm strands with a knife and then used my ruler as a guide and cut along it with a pizza slice to get perfect strands.
Start with one strand from top the bottom, then another from left to right to make a cross (praise satan) and start to lift the edges of the under-strand and place two more slices on either side. Continue this pattern from the top to the bottom, but since it is really tough to type and explain this. Watch my highlight where I do the lattice top by clicking here, I promise its not too hard!!
Once you've completed your LOVELY pie top, eggwash all of the pie (the pastry, not the apple), if you want extra shine, leave the pie for 10-15 minutes and eggwash again before baking. Place the pie in your pre-heated oven 35-40 minutes.
After 20-25 minutes, keep an eye on the colour of your pastry colour will vary as no ovens are the same. Once the pie looks beautiful and golden brown, you can place over alluminum/tin foil and continue to bake the pie. This will keep the pie colour perfect but allow the inside to continue to cook.
When 35-40 minutes have passed, you can use a small knife to check if the apples are cooked. If there is alot of liquid in the pie, cover with foil again and continue to bake for another 10 minutes until slightly thicker. This liquid will thicken up a little but I personally prefer a thicker pie, so I bake for longer!
Let cool for about 20-30 minutes before slicing to prevent the pie completely leaking but in my personal opinion, letting it cool completely lets it soften and thicken a little more with WAY more flavour!
Enjoy my loves! Ofcourse you can eat this with cream or icecream and if you want, you can add spices to the mix if thats your thing. I really hope you enjoy this recipe and if you do end up making it, please tag me on instagram or twitter in my socials down below!! x
