Now, let's just get this right out of the way. This recipe for the iconic apple dish from raucous teen comedy American Pie is meant for one purpose only: eating.
So while Jason Biggs's experimental 17-year-old might have ended up in an unenviable position, there's no denying the original deliciousness of that apple pie.
In order to satisfy our craving, we spoke to Dave Watts, head chef at The Cotswold House Hotel, who gave us his best apple pie recipe.
Makes one super tasty pie, to be eaten, and not used for any other purpose...
Preparation time: 30 minutes with about an hour waiting time for the sweet pastry to rest and then cook.
Cooking time for the pie 40-45 minutes at 160C
Equipment
25cm pie tin
2 x large mixing bowls
Rolling pin
Food processor or mixer
Chopping board
Pastry brush
Ingredients
Filling
6 x Large Bramley apples (approx 1300gm)
Demerera sugar (approx 130gm)
Dark brown sugar (approx 130gm)
Half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon
Sweet pastry
120gm Unsalted butter (diced)
50gm icing sugar
25gm Ground almonds
Pinch of salt
2 x egg yolks (40gm)
Two measures of flour : 75gm Plain flour and 155gm Plain flour
Egg wash
1 x egg
25ml milk
Method
For the filling:
Peel apple cores and roughly dice them into chunks the size of a fifty pence piece and place into a bowl with the sugars and cinnamon. Leave to macerate until needed for the pie.
For the sweet pastry:
Place all of the ingredients, apart from the second amount of flour, into the mixer and mix until combined. Once it is all combined evenly, turn off the machine and add the second amount of flour (155gm). Mix again, gently this time, just to incorporate all of the flour. Adding this flour at the end will give you a really light, crisp and short sweet pastry. Place into cling film, cover and put into the fridge to rest for 25 minutes.
After the pastry has rested, remove from the cling film and cut 1/3 off, reserving it for the pie lid. Place your 2/3 sweet pastry onto a sheet of cling film and place another cling film sheet over the top. Roll out the pastry so that it is 3-4mm thick and large enough to cover the base of your pie tin. Lightly grease the pie tin with a little butter. Remove the top layer of cling film and gently lift the bottom layer lifting the rolled pastry with it. Gently place this into your pie tin so that the cling film is on the inside and the pastry is touching the pie tin itself. Gently lift and move the pastry around so that it is tight to the tin. Leaving the cling film covering the pastry, fill the middle with baking beans or rice and spread these out so that they are touching the edge of the tin. Do this so that you can blind bake the pie case.
Pre-heat the oven to 160C and cook the pie base for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove the pie base and gently lift out the cling film keeping all of your baking beans within it. Brush the base with the egg wash and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes, repeat this egg wash process. Trim the edges of the pie base with a small knife.
Drain off the apple and fill the pie, egg washing the rim of the pie base so that the top will fix to it.
Roll out the lid using the 1/3 pastry you kept aside and place over the pie. Gently pinch to seal the top and the bottom together trimming off any excess pastry. Egg wash the top of the pie and cut a couple of slits approximately 5mm long in the lid to let the steam out.
Place back into the oven for 40-45 minutes. Take the liquid that you drained from the apples and reduce to a glaze, use this to brush over the pie once it has cooled slightly.
Dave Watts is head chef at the Cotswold House Hotel. Rooms start from just £120 per person, with main courses at The Cotswold Grill ranging from £9.50 to £23.00. The Dining Room (fine dining restaurant) reopened in May. For further information, hotel and restaurant reservations, visit www.cotswoldhouse.com or call 01386 840330.
(Images: All Star, YouTube)
