Fatboybakes has inspired me to put up this recipe. I found it in an old little 'French Cooking' booklet I bought years ago in a warehouse booksale.
Since my Other Half wasn't too fond of pears, I switched the pear in Berry Rustic Pear Cake (see two posts below) to apple. That, in turn, nagged me to look for apple pie recipes in books and the 'Net.
Here it is, adjusted slightly to meet the Other Half's finicky tastes regarding crusts:
French Apple Pie
crust:
2 1/2 cups flour
110g butter
4 tbs cream
filling:
80g marzipan
1 egg
3 apples, peeled leaving bits of reddish skin for colour interest
3 tsp lemon juice
1 tbs sugar
2 tbs raisins or sultanas, presoaked for 10 mins in warm water and drained
glaze (optional):
3 tbs apricot or pineapple puree (e.g. baby food)
1. Cut butter into flour with butter knife or food processor. Pour cream over it and form into ball without kneading. Cover and put in fridge for 40 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 210 degrees C. Roll pastry out on baking paper into a round for a 25-28cm round pie tin (nice if you have the lift off the bottom plate kind) or a square (25x25cm) or rectangle to fit whatever low-rise baking tin you have, making a low 1cm wall all round.
3. If you can succeed in mixing marzipan with egg into a smooth batter, bravo! (I couldn't, so I just snipped the marzipan into little pieces and mixed them with the egg), spread it over the pastry. Bake at 200 degrees C for 10 minutes.
4. Core apples and slice into half cm thickness. Sprinkle with lemon juice as you go along, so they don't oxidise and turn an unsightly brown. Besides, the tartness adds taste. Place slices, overlapping, in baked pastry. (This will test your aesthetic patience, I tell you.) Bring oven down to 190 degrees C.
5. Sprinkle sugar over the apple slices. Scatter the raisins.
Bake for another 15-20 minutes.
(6. When pie is out of oven, brush with puree. I only had some raspberry jam, so I used a bit to add a blush to my pie.)
32 comments:
The layering of the sliced apples is so pretty, Argus! Wonder if I should attempt this...hmmmmmm. I think gula melaka will go very well with apples, dontchathink?
Thanks, LL. I was getting quite fed up of slowly overlapping the slices of apple, so towards the centre, I just chucked them in, and then the OCD sufferer in me started rearranging them again but failed quite gloriously. ;-)
In fact, yes, a sprinkling of light brown sugar will give it colour and extra flavour. ^_^ You lurve gula melaka, dontcha?
aiyo, you lost me at the layering bit. ok, just to clarify, did you blind bake the pastry case first before adding the marzipan egg mixture? well, marzipan here is darn expensive la.
looks lovely, would love to try this out.
Ms Gula Melaka trying to promote her use of palm sugar again i see.
FBB, not blind-baked (not sure if I can bake blindfolded but other, er, things - possibly boleh, hee hee). The pie crust is baked once WITH the egg-marzipan. Then baked again with the apple piled on.
LL and FBB, I'll bring you each a roll or two of marzipan when I visit M'sia in August, OK? Here it's only about RM3.50 for 80g.
Argus wargus, in return for your generosity, I shall bestow you with a whole kilogram of gula melaka for your future endeavours.
Liberally sprinkly yours,
Gula Melaka Queen.
Empress Palm Sugar, my Other Half would kiss your feet for the gula melaka -- he spoons it or dark brown sugar onto his yoghurt and let it sit overnight in the fridge. A great way to turn half-fat yoghurt into a health hazard. ^_^
Thanks! Me, I'd use it for Sago Gula Melaka, Wajik (brown sugar glutinous rice dessert) and Puteri Berendam (similar to Wajik but soaks in a bath of coconut milk, yum! Haven't had it for years; must find a recipe for it).
Gula Melaka Queen: O would that you favour me with some of your liberally sprinkly self too...
Mademoiselle Argus: The pie looks utterly divine with its uncovered treasures gleaming and screaming for a dollop of fine vanilla ice-cream. And yeah, the OCD poster boy in me approves of your ordering and re-ordering of the apple slices most ardently.
And I am so stealing the name 'Puteri Berendam' for a story sometime soon... We even have a place called 'Batu Berendam' in Melaka, ya know?
P.S. Chef FBB or Chef Argus: What is 'blind-baking'?
Thanks, Kenny. O ja, a scoop of Movenpick vanilla ice-cream or vanilla custard sauce is great with this kind of thin-crust-pizza-like apple pie.
Blind baking involves you wearing a blindfold, groping around the kitchen till you find the pastry, roll it out, fit it into the pie pan and pop it in the oven nude (the pastry, I mean, not you) which means 'ohne fuellung' or without filling. Some folk weigh it down with dry beans (later discarded, or force-fed to your ma-in-law if u prefer), especially if the pastry is the kind with a tendency to swell up like French loaves.
(For this lesson, you owe me a kopi in August when I visit M'sia, Kenny.)
Oh for this lesson, you'd got more than just kopi, Argus... ;)
And do only French loaves have a tendency of swelling? I thought all loaves do, regardless of nationality... (Cookies, though, as I have learned from Gula Melaka Queen, may be in dire need of Viagra sometimes...)
I love apple pie so I must try this one. But doesn't sound too easy. I might do it if I stumble across marzipan at the supermarket. And apples here are so fresh and cheap - straight from the orchard!
Thanks, Kenny. Lately my Swiss loaves don't rise much - firm and rather solid after baking. ;-) Maybe the yeast was dead, or wrongly handled.
TH, I have another apple pie recipe, the closed American slightly gooey kind, by Mrs Fields of the chewy choc cookies fame. If you like, let me know and I'll email it to you.
Yes, Tasmania is known for its apples, isn't it?
this looks so innocently lovely to be indulge into! I will just put them in my showcase!
Thanks, Big Boys Oven. Is your 'showcase' real or online?
^_^
One mexican mango got overripe, and we just ate it. One grape fruit and two apples are sitting in the fridge. I hate peeling and cutting fruits. Just popped some strawberries into my mouth.
Sorry, Argus,
Thought the comments didn't go through. I accidentally clicked so many times. Well, as for the bananas, my son and I ate them up before it turned into cucur kodok.
Sounds like you're having a tutti-frutti time, Wonda. These days I'm dizzily booking hotels in Italy for my two sisters - very expensive in May!
Oh Argus... I have completely lost the plot here... are we still talking about baked products? Lol.
(We do seem to have an insidious undercurrent to our comments that the other lighter comments don't on the surface, eh? Or is this just evil ol' me?)
Just evil, newly in love, ol' you.
Yes the title did catch my attention and may I please have a slice?
Damn. Thought it was you, too. Lol.
Sure, Cynthia, as soon as you make a visit here. ^_^
Kenny, you've gotta stop eating so many Toblerones.
But Toblerones (and Nutella) are God's gift to mankind. Of the most yummy chocolatey kind. :D
It certainly has me drooling...not sure if slobbery kisses is what my Honey has in mind...but I know he'll love the pie!
Kenny, Blox here is my fav kind of filled choc bars.
Ruth, thanks for dropping in. Hope your beloved gets a big, yummy apple pie soon. ;-)
Blox? Never had the chance to try it... must be yummy if it has ya attention... ;)
Kenny, Blox has 3 kinds of 'filling' - nougat hazelnut creme, coconut candy and caramel biscuit. Will bring back some for you to try endish-August.
'Nougat hazelnut creme' sounds like another name for heaven... Mmmm... Can't wait to see you in August (but not cos of the Blox, lah!)
Hello Argus :) Finally have time to drop by your blog site properly! MmMmMmm~~ Apple Pie... I'll have to give this a go one day ^_^ Looks absolutely delish!
So any Swiss recipes lying around? ALl I know how to make is Älpler Makronen (but that's just Mac n Cheese with potato fancifications).
Ciao
Bell (www.annabelsim.com)
Hi, Bell! Thanks for dropping by.
Yes, about once a month I make Alpenmagronen and eat it with caramelised onion and applesauce. The other thing I've made is leek and potato soup from 'The Little Swiss Cookbook'.
ooh, belated but thanks in advance for the marzipan. (now, there's a sentence where you can use belated and advance all in the same breath)
Post a Comment