Apple Pie

Ingredients

• 600 g shortcrust pastry, for a lid and base
• 1.2 kg apples, half bramley and half eating apples
• 120 g caster sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsp cornflour
• juice of 1 lemon
• 30 g butter
• 1 egg, beaten
• a grating of nutmeg

Method

1. Use two kinds of apple

   Peel and slice the apples and toss with the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and lemon juice. Bramleys collapse into sauce and eating apples hold their shape — half of each gives you both, which one variety alone cannot.

2. Macerate, then thicken

   Leave the apples 30 minutes, then drain off the juice, boil it down with the butter to a syrup, and toss it back through with the cornflour. Draining and reducing is what prevents the notorious gap between a domed lid and a shrunken, watery filling.

   30 min

3. Line and fill cold

   Line the tin with two-thirds of the pastry and pile the filling in domed slightly higher than the rim, since it settles. The filling must be completely cold or it melts the pastry before it reaches the oven.

4. Seal and vent

   Brush the rim with water, lay the lid on, press firmly and crimp, then cut two or three vents. Unvented, steam lifts the lid clean off the filling.

5. Bake hot, then lower

   Glaze with beaten egg, sprinkle with sugar, and bake at 200°C for 20 minutes, then 180°C for 35 more until deep gold and you can see the filling bubbling through the vents.

   55 min

6. Rest properly

   Rest at least 45 minutes. The cornflour only finishes thickening as it cools, so cut too early and the filling runs out across the plate.

   45 min