Delicious Homemade 2-crust Apple Pie Recipe

Apple pie is a favourite dessert enjoyed by my family for decades and the fever has been caught up by my daughters-in-law. I just love preparing apple pie for my family, as they truly enjoy eating them as reflected on their happy faces, and that gives me much satisfaction and joy! I baked two of them for Christmas recently, so that there was ample for my family members to relish and packed for home too! They sure were extremely delighted! :-D



Though it's usually baked during festive seasons and special occasions, I do bake them too whenever the desire to consume it is too great to ignore or by request. My first attempt was in the late 70s, using the normal short crust pastry measurement of 1 part butter to 2 parts flour, learnt during my junior secondary school days, but that had changed a few years later when I experimented with the dough ingredients in a jam tart recipe that I favoured and it turned out just superb! It's tastier with the addition of more butter and has a crumbling texture in the mouth.



We used to eat the apple pie with custard but now with generous scoops of vanilla ice-cream. But, one man's meat is another man's poison. Kellie prefers to take it plain, while Yanti, my other daughter-in-law prefers it with custard. John, sons and myself is okay with either custard or ice-cream.

My apple pie is simple and easy to make, nothing fancy yet so delicious and yummy in its simplicity!

Home-made 2-crust Apple Pie Recipe With Fresh Apples & Raisins
(this is good for a rounded 10-inch pie pan with a depth of 1.25")

Ingredients:

(A) For Pastry

• 600 gm plain wheat flour + 2 teaspoon baking powder + 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 454 gm butter (should be somewhat chilled but soft enough to be cut through with a knife)
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla essence + 4 tablespoons cold water

(B) For Filling

• 6 medium-sized Granny Smith green apples
• 150-200 grams raisins or sultanas
  
• 10 tablespoons sugar (or more, as preferred)

Preparation:

(A) To prepare pastry (use the shortcrust pastry method)

1. Sift flour mixture, with the sieve held high above the bowl, to allow as much air to be incorporated as possible. Do it twice.
2. Cut the butter into small cubes and add to the flour. Continue cutting the butter into the flour until well blended. Then, rub butter into flour lightly and gently with fingertips, until mixture resembles breadcrumbs, lifting it high while doing so.
   
   
   
3. Add vanilla essence mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time sprinkling evenly all round and gathering the crumbs all together with your fingertips to form a ball of dough which should leave the bowl clean.
   
4. Cover it with a wrap and leave it to rest in the fridge for 20-30 mins as advised by experts, though I usually omit this step and use it straightaway.
5. Divide the dough into 2 parts, with one part slightly larger than the other. Turn out the larger dough onto a lightly floured surface. With a lightly flour-dusted rolling pin, roll it out into a roundish-shaped pastry, 12-inch diameter (large enough to line the pie pan with an overhang of 1/2 inch) and 1/8 inch thick. You'd need to re-dust the rolling pin a few times with flour to prevent the pastry from sticking. (tip: I usually have the dough rolled onto a lightly floured aluminium foil placed on a hard surface so that the pastry can be easily lifted to invert over the pie dish as seen in the images below).
   
   
   
6. Gently lift the pastry with the aluminium foil and invert it to fit the inside of the pie pan. Or you can wrap the pastry around the flour-dusted rolling pin and unroll it onto the pan.
   
7. Take the second smaller dough and roll it out thinly like the other larger dough, to form a slightly smaller rounded pastry that is large enough to cover the apple filling. Keep aside while you prepare the filling.

(B) To prepare apples for filling and complete the whole preparation

1. Wash apples and use a peeler to remove skin of apples.
2. Slice each apple with a slicer until all have been sliced. Alternatively, slice apples with a knife if you prefer them thicker.
   
3. Roughly divide into 3 equal amounts.
4. Spread apple slices to line the base pie crust, alternating with sugar and raisins in this order – first apple, followed with sprinkling of about 3 tablespoons sugar and raisins, repeat and end with apple layer, and topped with sugar.
   
   
   
5. Gently lift the second rolled-out pastry at item A7. above and cover the apple/raisin filling, carefully sealing both edges of the base and top pastry layers together. Pinch its edge to design as desired. In my example, I've crimped the edge using my thumb and forefinger of my left hand and the forefinger of my right hand, making a v-shaped pattern all round the edge which is kept slightly higher than the pie pan. Chill the whole thing for half an hour before baking (this is really optional, something I learnt from some other biscuit recipes that it'll result in a mouth-crumbling texture and have always applied it here)
   
   
   
6. Remove from fridge. Make few slits on top of pie crust to allow steam to escape during baking and lightly glaze with beaten egg yolk. Bake in a preheated oven for an hour at 370 degrees F, then at reduced heat of 350 deg F for another 30 mins or until the crust turns golden brown.
7. Serve warm or cold with custard or ice-cream.

Note: You can vary the pie filling with blueberries or bananas/pineapples with cinnamon or nutmeg powder or savoury meat with mushrooms and mixed vegetables or whatever you fancy!

Happy cooking and all the best! :)