11 hours ago
3
Flaky olive-oil pastry, which requires no resting or blind baking, here encases beautifully layered, sweet apples that don’t need to be pre-cooked. Despite its intricate appearance, this pie comes together surprisingly quickly – I once assembled it live on TV in less than eight minutes. It also makes use of the nutrient-rich skins, and is scented with a touch of grated tonka bean, prized for its heavenly vanilla, almond and spice notes. If you’re in the US, where tonka is banned, simply double the cinnamon for an equally epic apple pie.
Forbidden apple pie
Prep 20 min
Macerate 20 min
Cook 50 min
Makes 1 x 23cm pie
For the pastry
450g plain flour
1 tsp fine salt
30g caster sugar
180ml olive oil
Milk, or plant-based alternative, for brushing
Demerara sugar, for sprinkling
Ice-cream or cream, or plant-based alternative, to serve
For the filling
1kg apples (I like pink lady or braeburn), cored and peeled, peel reserved and flesh cut into 1-2mm slices (a mandoline will make light work of this)
130g caster sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tonka bean, grated on a microplane
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
½ lemon, zested, plus 1 tbsp juice
30g cornflour
To make the flaky pastry, combine the flour, salt and sugar in a bowl, then add the oil and mix until the flour is evenly coated. Gradually add 75ml cold water, then stir until the mix comes together into a smooth dough.
Put two-thirds of the dough between two sheets of greaseproof paper, then roll it out into a 3-4mm-thick disc about 30cm in diameter. Put the remaining third of the dough between two more sheets of paper and roll out into a smaller 25cm disc of similar thickness. Use the larger disc to line a 23cm tart tin, trim the edges, leaving a 3cm overhang, then press gently into the tin.
Finely chop the apple peel by hand or in a food processor, then spread it evenly over the pastry base. In a bowl, toss the sliced apple with the remaining filling ingredients, then leave to macerate for 20 minutes.
Layer the apples over the peel, stacking them tightly to fill any gaps and create a slight dome. Stir the leftover liquid in the apple bowl, then drizzle this over the filling.
Brush the overhanging edge of the pastry with water, then cover the apples with the smaller pastry disc, pressing and crimping the edges to seal. Trim off the excess pastry, then cut steam holes in the top.
Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6. Brush the pastry with milk and sprinkle with demerara sugar. Bake for 25 minutes, then rotate the tin and bake for another 25 minutes, until the pastry is golden. Check it’s ready by inserting a knife into one of the steam holes – it should easily slide through the fruit filling; some of the filling may have oozed slightly out of the steam holes.
Remove from the oven, leave to cool for at least 30 minutes, then serve, ideally at room temperature or gently reheated, with ice-cream or cream. Alternatively, chill the baked pie for up to four days, then warm in a 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4 oven for 10-15 minutes. The baked pie can also be frozen, defrosted overnight in the fridge, then reheated.
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Phil Khoury is a pastry chef and author of A New Way to Bake, published by Hardie Grant at £30. To order a copy for £27, go to guardianbookshop.com
