Apple deep dish pie with wholemeal pastry

 

 

When I moved to London ten years ago, I used to live in a house with two huge apple trees in my back garden. Apple dishes used to appear very often during the apple season on my dining table – fresh apple juice was made every day, and apple jam and chutney were made in big batches and given to friends. It reminded me of the mango season back home in Kerala, where we used to get so many mangoes during mango season!

Even though I don’t have a mountain of apples waiting to be used up these days, I make this simple deep dish apple pie during this time of the year. It is a comfortingly warm and light everyday dessert.   

 

 

The pastry on top is made with wholemeal flour, just to make it a little bit more healthy and flavourful. If you want, you can substitute wholemeal flour with plain flour – plain flour gives the pastry a much lighter finish, but I prefer the nutty, earthy flavour of wholemeal.  The wholemeal compliments the flavour of the soft, tender apple and dry fruit filling (enhanced with lots of cinnamon powder and lemon juice) well. Remember to serve it warm, with a dollop of  fresh whipped cream or good vanilla ice cream.

 

 

Whole meal Pastry

• Whole meal flour-250 g
• Butter-150g
• Powder sugar-30g
• Salt-1/4 teaspoon
• Cold water- 4-5 tablespoon

Method

• Mix whole meal flour, powder sugar and salt in a bowl.
• Add cold butter cut into small pieces to the flour mixture and rub it with your finger tips until you get a sandy texture.
• Slowly add enough cold water to the above mixture and mix till everything clumps together. Knead lightly.
• Cover with cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

 

 

Filling

• Granny smith apple-4
• Raisins-75 g
• Sugar-70g
• Cinnamon powder-1/2 teaspoon
• Lemon juice- 1 table spoon

Method

• Peel and cut apple into thin slices, mix with raisins, sugar, cinnamon powder and lemon juice.
• Keep the filling in a deep pie dish.
• Brush the sides of the pie dish with water.
• Knead the chilled pastry lightly and roll the pastry into 3-4 mm thick sheet. Keep it on the top of the filling. Cut the extra pastry from around the edge of pie dish.
• Press the sides with a fork to stick to the sides of the dish and make a hole in the centre for the steam to escape while baking.
• Brush the top with whisked egg and bake in a pre heated oven (180 degree centigrade) for 40- 45 minutes or until the pastry is crisp and brown and the apples are cooked.