It's not hard to make a good applie pie, you only have to pay attention to a couple of minor details. Based on my experience with different kinds of applie pie I can say that there are 3 very important characteristics that make an apple pie the best one you can make:
1. The filling has to be sweet and sour enough at the same time. There's nothing worse than when you can't taste the apples because the whole filling is just too sweet.
2. You mustn't overcook the apples for the filling. It has to be soft and it has to have the right texture for a filling but you mustn't cook it until it all falls apart.
3. The crust needs some whole grain flour in it, it will taste a lot better than when you only put plain flour in it.
And of course you always have to apply the golden rule: lots of filling, with a thin crust! :)
Ingredients for a medium sized pie:
- 300 grs of plain flour
- 100 grs of any kind of whole grain flour
- 50 grs of fresh yeast
- 150 mls of milk
- 100 grs of granulated sugar
- 100 grs of cold butter
- 1 coffe spoon of ground cloves
- 1 egg for the egg wash
- 3 kgs of apples approx., mix sweet and sour kinds if possible
- 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons of xylitol
- zest of one lemon
- juice of 1,5 lemons
- two handfuls of raisins
- 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
It's best to prepare the dough first and while it rests you can make the filling. Measure the two types of flour, mix them with the cloves, also add the butter, crumble it into the flour mixture. Heat the milk up a bit, not too hot though, and add a bit of sugar and the yeast. You have to let it rise, then you can add it to the flour mixture. When that's done, you can just be lazy as I usually am, and throw the whole thing into the machine so that it kneads it instead of you. If you don't have the possibility, you will have to go in and do it with your hands. You can add warm water if it's not sticking together but in the end it has to be a flexible, easy to handle dough, so if it's too sticky just add some more flour. Put it away until you make the filling so that the yeast can do its job.
For the filling you will have to peel the apples and grate them. When that's done, you will have to squeeze the juice out of the apple (by the way if you drain it in the end you get a pure, 100% natural apple juice and it's delicious!) which you have to put into a pan along with the raisins, the cinnamon, the lemon juice, the lemon zest and the sugar (and the sweetener), on low heat. Let it cook for about 15 minutes, give it a good stir every now and then and taste it, that's very important. You can add more sugar/sweetener or lemon juice if needed. When done, let it cool for a while.
All you have to do now is get your rolling pin and roll the dough out so it can fit into the tin of your choice, lined with baking paper. Add the filling and decorate it in any way you want! It needs about 20-25 minutes at 180 C in the oven.
