Lattice-Top Apple Pie

I am a food snob. And a food snob like me gets to be taken down a peg or two once in a while.

Apple pies were never my kind of desserts. So were bread puddings. Nah, no humble pies or puddings for me. I'm more a mille feuillie, tiramisu and clafoutis kind of gal (when you feel like not quite a grown woman yet definitely not a girl). In fact, the more unpronouncible the dessert, the better. Yet I've found that kids and grown men can never resist apple pies. In fact, they get excited over apple pies. "Apple pies for dessert ah? WOW!" "Any ice cream to go with it??" And I think, is it the ice cream or the pie you guys are gaga about.

But last month I ate a very good apple pie. It was my friend Linda's apple pie that changed my mind about apple pies. Her first apple pie was not exactly a wonder, because she had made the crust too thick. But Linda's second apple pie--oh, it was superb. It was so good that it was all I can remember of her dinner that evening, and it left me wanting to make a pie as good as that.

I do have a very amazing apple struesel that I'll share with you one day, but now let's focus on the all-American dessert, the humble yet wholesome apple pie.

It wasn't the apple filling that caught my tongue and stomach. It was the crust. It was very short, very buttery and very delicious. However, when I was making the strips for the lattice top with Linda, the pie pastry was so short that it broke here and there. I wanted a pastry that was strong enough to weave but did not compromise on the flakiness. The filling was good, but it was the usual apple filling except Linda added custard powder for extra flavor and to thicken the juices. I wanted a filling that's gooey with soft apple chunks, like --oh dear, dare I say it--McD's, but with more apples and less goo. That can only be achieved with cooking, but I didn't want the hassle of cooking my apples. So I consulted 3 different cookbooks and stole a bit of tips from each, and came up with this apple pie, which I am very happy with. The pie pastry is short but strong enough to be weaved. The apple filling has potato starch to blend the filling together (cornstarch and plain flour are deemed too gluey and dry respectively) and keep the bottom crust from getting soggy because I don't bother with baking blind (i.e. pre-baking the bottom crust). Because I didn't pre-bake the bottom crust, I used the lower element of the oven for the first 20 minutes to cook the bottom crust before the juice from the apples can cause the crust to go soft. The only thing I'll probably change is maybe cook my apples so I get more gooey sauce and softer apples. But that would be one fine day, not now. For now, this is as good as it gets.


Lattice-Top Apple Pie

Pie Crust
230 g (8oz) cold butter*, cut into 2 cm cubes
3 cups plain flour
1 t salt
1 1/2 T fine sugar
1 egg
1 t cider vinegar
4-6 T ice water

*you can use half butter & half Crisco too

1. Put the flour, firm butter, salt and sugar into your processor or cake mixer and whizz a couple of times until crumbly.

2. Whisk the egg, cold water and cider vinegar and add to the crumbly mixture. Use a long spatula to fold the mixture several times to mix.

3. Take the dough out and knead once or twice to get it into a ball. You may need to add another spoon or two of cold water, but not too much. Just enough for it all to come together.

4. Roll pastry into a large log, break off a small portion sof the dough and smear it on your work surface with the heel of your palm. Repeat one more time. The French call this fraisage and this step will ensure a short flaky crust. However, the most important thing (esp. in hot weather) is that everything must be cold--cold hands, cold butter, cold dough. The cold butter will melt upon baking and create tiny holes when it melts, resulting in short pastry. The next important thing is to work quickly, again to prevent the butter from melting.



5. Gather everything together again, cut 1/3 off to make a small disk, put it into a plastic bag and chill 1 hour. Roll the larger portion into a small disk and put into another bag and chill that too.

6. Put the smaller piece of dough on a lightly floured surface and roll into a rectangle about 30 cm/12" long and 23 cm/9" wide. (You can also use a 10-11"/26-28 cm dish, increase apples to 10, pastry remain the same amount but roll the bottom crust and strips wider/longer.) Transfer onto a piece of greaseproof paper-lined tray and chill. Take out when firm, use a pizza cutter to cut into 2.5 cm/1 " strips, 0.2 cm /1/8th inch thick .Weave into a lattice on the paper-lined tray. Return to fridge.

7. Roll the larger piece of dough into a thin round piece of 33 cm/13" in diameter. Transfer onto a 9" glass pie dish using a large rolling pin (or lightly flour it & fold it into quarters and unfold on the dish) and press firmly into the pie plate. Leave the excess crust overhanging. Put in fridge to chill (remember, keep the dough cold to make sure butter doesn't melt before it's baked).

Filling
1 kg (about 8) Granny Smiths, or a mixture of apples
1/3 cup golden raisins, washed
zest of 1 lemon
2 T lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup maple syrup*
1/2 t cinnamon powder
1/4 t nutmeg
4 T potato starch
1/4 t salt

* or increase sugar to 3/4 cup. I used maple syrup because my bottle is expiring.

1. Peel and cut apples into quarters and slice. Put into a large bowl.

2. Toss apples with everything else on the list.

Baking The Pie
1. Oven preheated at 220 C, rack on bottom.

2. Scoop apple filling into crust-lined pie dish (retain the juice. If there's less than 3 T juice, add 3 -4T water to the retained juice), put the prepared lattice top over the top, trim and press the edges to seal, crimping with your thumb and fingers.

3. Brush the lattice with water and sprinkle some sugar on.

4. Turn heating to bottom element only. Bake 20 minutes. Carefully (HOT!) move the pie to the middle of the oven, turn heat down to 190 C, use upper and lower heating elements, pour the retained apple juice (stir well) into the holes between the lattice and bake another 35 to 40 minutes. If pie top is browning too quickly, reduce the heat a little.

5. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream. Expect extra loving reaction from family.