Hello everyone, I am very excited for this entry. This is by far one of my favourite shoots. I remember taking photos of it for 3 hours, when I already had the photos I wanted in the first 30 minutes. It was just a pretty set, I couldn't destroy it straight away.
I love everything about this shoot, all the tiny props and details all combined together work all so well together.
I remember working as a waitress, and my favourite job when closing was polishing and rolling all the cutlery or folding 200 napkins. People used to dread it and found it so boring. I think it comes from my pastry. I will spend hours piping icing on a cake, or tempering chocolate and making 100 chocolate scrolls. I think I love the repetition because I do it in my pastry all the time.
Each one of these pies was hand laced, and trust me it took a long time. I made about 50 pies, because some would be sampled before I shoot them or some wouldn't come out of the tin completely clean. So I have to make enough because I was unsure if its going to be a clean or a busy shoot.
These warm apple pies, just looking at them makes me hungry. The homemade pastry is golden and crisp. The apples are still holding their shape but soft when you bit into them, the aromas of sugar and cinnamon makes me hungry.
These apple pies, are the perfect size for any dinner party, one pie is a nice finish to a dinner, topped with some homemade vanilla bean ice cream as it begins to melt off the sides.
These pies are super time consuming, so they do require a bit of time management. You need to make the pastry, make the filling, blind bake the pastry, lattice or the pies individually and bake the finishing pies.
I have memories of a kid, we used to do do a fundraiser for school camps by selling these big pies, (oxford pies) steak, beef, chicken, boysenberry, apple and raspberry pies. We used to buy some to help fundraise for my school camps. I remember the boys coming out from their room on a Saturday night around 9pm. They would go round and ask all the siblings what flavour pie they want. Then we would put one in the oven (blackberry, boysenberry, raspberry or apple)We would all then sit around the dining room table dividing up the pie for dessert.
These small little pies are perfect, because you can eat them in your hand without anything spilling out. Which makes them so much more dangerous.
And now for the recipe...
Recipe:
Shortcrust Pastry
-Source Donna Hay
Pastry:
300g all purpose flour
145g unsalted butter cubed and chilled
2-3 Tablespoons iced water
Apple Filling:
9 granny smith apples, peeled and cored
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
50g unsalted butter
90g brown sugar
1/3 cup almond meal
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 teaspoon star anise
2 oranges zested
Method:
Process the flour and chilled butter in a food processor or blender until it resembles coarse sand. And the flour has turned to the colour of the butter. (Yellow)
With the motor running slowly drizzle in the cold iced water a tablespoon at a time, because depending on humidity and temperature it may take less or more water.
Add enough water until you see the dough clump together. Turn off the motor (alternatively you can do this by hand) tip the dough onto a floured surface.
Knead very lightly, just to bring the dough together. Wrap in glad wrap and let it chill in the fridge for 30mins.
When wanting to use the dough, pull the dough from out of fridge prior to rolling out (10mins) it will then soften to room temperature and will be easier to roll. You will thank me later.
Peel and core all apples, dice into small cubes and place in a bowl.
Squeeze lemon juice over the apples immediately to prevent the apples from browning.
Toss to combine so all apple pieces are coated in lemon juice.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the brown sugar, spices and orange zest. Let the butter mixture simmer for a minute to infuse all the flavours and draw out all the aromas.
Slowly pour the apple cubes into the butter mixture and toss till they are all combined. Allow them to cook over low heat 12-15 minutes until the edges begin to soften. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
Roll your dough out to 0.5cm and begin cutting circles out of your pastry. I used muffin tins for my apple pies, so I found a circle that would cover the whole surface area of the muffin cases.
Butter your muffin cases with a pastry brush and melted butter. The reason I use a pastry brush and not baking paper to grease is because the pastry brush is good at getting into all the spots you would miss if you were using baking paper.
Line your baking tray, cut 12cm x 1cm strips of baking paper that you will line as a criss cross over your buttered muffin cases.
Gently drape your pastry circles over the criss cross baking paper strips. Prick your pastry with a fork all over. Place tinfoil squares in every case and gently press the tinfoil to all the edges of the pastry.
Fill the tinfoil with beans/rice/blind baking balls. Place in the oven for ten minutes. Remove the pie shells from the oven. Remove the tinfoil and blind baking beans. Return the pastry to the oven for a further 5 minutes uncovered.
Set aside to cool.
Place a dusting of almond meal on the bottom of the pie case. Pour apple mixture until it is levelled with the top. Pour a little of the juice from the apple mixture in there to enhance moisture and flavour.
Cut out strips 0.7cm width and begin latticing.
This is optional it is very time consuming but makes your pies look 10x better.
Once the lattice work is finished brush with an egg wash and sprinkle some raw sugar on top for texture.
Return the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.
The best time to get these pies out is 30 minutes since they have been pulled out of the oven. Too hot and you risk breaking the shells, too cold you risk the butter in the pastry setting and sticking to the sides. Best removed when warm.
Assembly:
Dust with icing sugar, and serve with fresh vanilla ice cream!
Yum yum, till next time babes x
