Mrs Blanc’s Apple Pie

So I was watching a clip of Raymond making his mum’s Apple Pie the other day and thought….. I need to have a go at that. It just happened to be on the TV as I somehow hit a button on my phone and, low and behold, my phone took a picture of his pie.  Would you believe it?  

Raymond made the pastry but I used a roll of ready rolled shortcrust pastry. There’s a recipe for shortcrust pastry on the site if you want to have a search.
I should have trimmed the extra pastry before filling the pie.

Ingredients

3 or 4 dessert apples like coxes pippins that hold their shape.  Bigger apples are better. This isn’t a recipe for Bradley’s. 

Glaze:

15g butter

15g caster sugar

1½ tsp lemon juice

A splash of Calvados (optional). I used brandy

Caster sugar, for dusting

Custard filling:

1  egg

150ml double cream

A splash of milk

50g caster sugar

Method

Unroll the pastry, cover with clingfilm and roll out to about 3mm (slightly thinner than the roll thickness) to cover the base and sides of an 8” release cake tin.  Let any extra pastry hang over the sides.  It will stop shrinkage.  Prick the base and put in the fridge for 20-30 minutes to rest. 

Preheat the oven to 220c and blind bake the base for 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven and set aside.  When it’s cool you can trim any extra pastry.

Peel the apples, quarter and remove the core. Then cut each one into wedges about 1/4”. Lay the apple wedges on the pastry, overlapping in a circle and fill any gaps.  Bigger apples would be best as they will stack easier. 

Make the glaze. 

In a small pan, melt the butter and sugar, remove from the heat, squeeze in the lemon juice and Calvados/brandy. Then brush the glaze over the apple slices and sprinkle with some caster sugar.

Prepare the filling by mixing together the cream, milk, sugar and egg.  Set aside. 

Bake the tart for 10 minutes. Turn the oven down to 200C and bake for a further 10 minutes.  Remove and pour over the filling mixture.  Then bake for a further 10-12 minutes until the centre of the pie is cooked.  Keep an eye on it. 

Leave the pie to stand for about 30 minutes before serving. 

Dust with icing sugar to serve.