Apple Pie

Here is a yummy subtle Apple Pie! Not too sweet, not too hard.

Ingredients:
Pastry:
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
225g cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes approx 1cm (good from the freezer!)
1/2 teaspoon salt
About 1/3 cup ice-cold water

Apple Filling:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons plain flour
1/4 cup of cold water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
8 granny smith apples (peeled, cored, sliced into 5mm slices)

Preheat oven to 170 degrees C.

For the pasty:
Combine flour and baking powder thoroughly in a bowl, add the butter cubes and allow processor to pummel until its a flakey, sandy crumble.

Dissolve 1/2 teaspoon salt into 1/3 cup of ice water then slowly poor into the flour butter mix in the processor. Allow it to beat until it ONLY JUST pulls together into dough. Don't over mix. This should just take a minute max.

Dump onto glad wrap and tighten into ball. Leave in fridge.

Apple filling:
Melt butter in a saucepan, add flour until paste. Add water, both sugars and bring to boil. Lower temperature to a gentle simmer and leave while you sort the pastry and apples.

Remove pastry from fridge and cut into thirds. Roll 2/3s out by dropping onto lunch wrap, over laying another sheet of lunch wrap. Squash with rolling pin a couple of times until its a bit flat before rolling out into a thin sheet, about 3mm. Lay into a greased 9 inch pie dish.

Place sliced apples into pastry-lined pie dish, so its piled up. Use remainder of dough to lattice the top of the pie (criss-cross with strips of pastry).

Pour the hot sugar butter slowly over the lattice work so that it butters the pastry and sinks between the gaps into the apple.

Bake for 55 minutes at 170 at the bottom of a fan bake oven, Be careful not to scorch the top (put tin foil over it if its looking a little tanned).

Serve with vanilla bean whipped cream (Split and deseed a vanilla pod into a bowl, add 2 heaped tablespoons of icing sugar, add 300ml heavy cream, whip.)

Nae's Mama's Pie Recipe

1 kilo of sirloin steak cut into pieces

500 grams minced beef

1 x finely sliced carrots

2 x very finely diced red onion

500 grams button mushrooms

3x heaped tablespoons tomato paste

1 tsp curry powder

grated nutmeg

beef stock

red wine

1 x tablespoon mustard

tub of sour cream

Put at least 6 large agrias on to boil.

Fry the steak with a little olive oil and garlic ( not much)  until brown and tender.Put aside. Fry beef mince  until browned. Into the pan with all the brown from frying the meat , add your 1 cup of beef stock and stir to get all the flavour out.  Place the meats , stock, mustard,diced mushrooms,  etc etc all except the sour cream into a large saucepan. Simmer for an hour. Add your 1x cup of red wine mixed with a little rice or corn flour to thicken.. Simmer and taste for salt etc.. add more condiments to taste. Stir in the sour cream....keep back a cup for the potatoe topping.

Potato Topping

Mash potatoes with salt, pepper, a cup of sour cream and parmesan cheese. Mash until soft and fluffy ( if you need to add a little milk thats ok,  but this whole pie is not a runny pie. The meat mixture should not be too gravyish....quite thick.

Line a large pie dish with flaky pastry. Pour in mixture. Top with the potatoes,  black pepper, parsley and xtra parmesan. Place  on your top layer of flaky pastry. Cook for aprox 1 hour on a relatively hot oven....

Can put in peas and or spinach  but I like it mainly being a beef sour cream pie myself..  Serve with broccoli , steamed carrots with lemon butter, crusty rolls. A green salad is aceptable too as this is not a runny pie.

I have done this pie with chicken too Darling and it works well just swapping the stock to a chicken one , and red wine to white. Adding a little bacon and some  steamed spinach to sit under the layer of potatoes is really yum. This is my basic pie recipe I always use when baking a pie. Interchanging a few ingredients to suit. Hate runny pies.

Mums Chicken and Mushroom Pie (Rene's Fav!)

2 tbsp olive oil
250g button mushrooms, sliced
1 clove garlic, sliced
6 chicken thigh fillets
1/3 cup white white
1 cup pouring cream
sea salt & cracked black pepper
1 sheet store-brought puff pastry
1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 200C. Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan over high heat. Add the mushrooms and garlic and cook for 3-5 minutes or until browned. Add the chicken and cook for 2-3 minutes or until browned. Add the wine, cream, salt & pepper and cook for 3-5 minutes or until slightly reduced. Spoon into 4 x 1 cup capacity ovenproof dishes and place on a baking tray. Cut 4 x 11cm circles from the pastry and place on top of the chicken mixture. Brush with the egg and cook for 20 minutes or until the pastry is puffed and golden.

(I make one large family pie)