I love apple pie but like Paul and Mary (Hollywood and Berry), I cannot abide a soggy bottom.
With that in mind, I decided to make individual apple parcels.
My thought was that they would be baked directly on a baking sheet rather than in a tin/plate, thereby preventing any soggy bottoms.
I also like the apple to look like apple not a brown sludge, so I added the flavour to the pastry rather than the apples.
The pastry is flavoured with cinnamon and handled so lightly that it tastes more like a crisp biscuit than pastry.
The picture is a little rustic, I grant you, but I didn’t want to waste any of the pastry by cutting it off and it was delicious.
Ingredients
225g plain flour
100g cold butter
25g golden caster sugar
1 generous teaspoon of cinnamon
2 – 3 table spoons of icy cold water
1 pinch of salt
5 Bramley apples – peeled, cored and chopped into 2cm cubes
1 table spoon of granulated sugar and a little more for sprinkling
Method
Step 1 – The Pastry
Sieve the cinnamon and flour together and either rub the butter in or,
If you have a food processor, mix it all together until it resembles breadcrumbs.
Don’t worry about the dark colour, this is biscuit pastry after all.
Add the water slowly to the breadcrumbs until they come together to form a dough.
Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for at least 30 minutes in the fridge.
Step 2 – The Apples
Gently heat the apples and granulated sugar until they form a lumpy purée.
Leave to cool.
Step 3 -The Construction
Pre heat the oven to 190 degrees.
Take the pastry from the fridge and divide into 8 pieces.
This is really important because you will only roll the pieces out once and that will ensure a biscuit type of finish.
Roll each piece out into a thin disc and add a good spoonful of the apple purée to the middle.
Fold over, seal with milk around the edges and press down with a fork.
Use the milk to coat the outside and sprinkle with the remaining granulated sugar.
Place side by side on a baking sheet.
Bake for 25 – 30 minutes until the pastry has browned.
The kitchen will smell divine!
Enjoy with either ice cream, whipped cream or custard!
Have a lovely day!