I can’t speak for everyone, but I personally am a little jealous that those on the other side of the pond are getting ready for an amazing holiday of feasting right now.
Last year I made the American Thanksgiving classic Pumpkin Pie. This year, since Pinterest has become my best friend, I’ve realised Apple Pie is nearly equally as popular. I imagine that this is because, from my experience, pumpkin pie is not very nice.
I followed The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook recipe for this apple pie. I hear Tarek Malouf, Hummingbird Bakery King, started the whole Hummingbird Bakery thing after celebrating Thanksgiving in the US so it’s only right. I went against their advice of serving it with vanilla ice cream and instead had it with some delicious honeycomb ice cream from Cook with my One Feeds Two order. They also have some other flavours I’ll be going back for.
Yeah, the whole perfect round balls with my new ice cream scoop thing failed.
I wasn’t entirely thrilled with the Hummingbird Basic Pie Crust and can’t actually remember if I’ve ever made it before. If you have a pie crust you’re confident and familiar with, stick with it. Make double so you have enough for the base of the pie and the top.
For the apple filling you’ll need:
150g unsalted butter
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1.5kg green apples – I used Granny Smith, peeled, cored, and cut into medium slices
200g caster sugar
Put the butter and cinnamon in a large saucepan and heat until the butter has melted. Add the apples and stir until they are well coated in butter. Finally, add the sugar and stir again. Cook the apples until softened but not cooked through. Keep stirring and do not leave them unattended or the bottom ones will turn to smush and leave the top ones raw. The apples will reduce and produce more liquid so don’t worry if you’ve got a pan full of dry apples to begin with. Once softened, lift the apples out of the juice and spread them out on a tray to cool completely.
Roll out half of your pie dough and line a 23cm pie dish, greased. Fill the pie crust with the cold apples. Roll the remaining dough out so you have enough to cover the top and make some decoration. I’m not too good at this decorative malarkey but I gave it a go with some leaves. I dug around in the cupboard and used the tin I usually make Key Lime Pie in to cut out the circle for the top of the pie. This also gave it a slightly waved edge, which I thought was quite nice.
Make some slits in the lid for the steam to escape whilst the pie cooks. Brush the top of the pie with a egg-and-milk wash with a pastry brush and sprinkle with a little extra caster sugar. Bake in a preheated oven for about 40 minutes at 170°C (325°F) Gas 3.
The last line of the Hummingbird Bakery recipe is, ‘leave to cool completely before serving’. Yeaaah right.
p.s. super cute plate from Tiger.
