For the past few years I’ve baked an apple pie for my father-in-law’s birthday based on his mothers recipe with a few tweaks here and there.
Nothing beats the smell and taste of warm apple pie, I mean come on! Apples, butter, sugar, cinnamon, rum raisins, almonds paste and almond flakes, a dollop of freshly whipped cream…. So good!
I struggled with the pastry a little today because we’re in a heatwave in Amsterdam at the moment. The pie is as pretty as I had hoped but of so tasty!
Oh a nice, little side note, the table cloth was embroidered by my own Oma Sonja 😉
Oma Beek’s Apple Pie
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...Ingredients
- Dough
- 200 g unsalted butter, softened but not all the way till room temperature
- 200 g caster sugar
- 400 g self raising flour
- 1 egg (half for the dough, other half to glaze the top of the dough)
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar or vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
- Filling
- 1,5 kg tart apples, like jonagolds (ongeschild)
- 75 g caster sugar
- 3 tsp cinnamon kaneel
- 2 tbsp bread-crumbs
- Optional
- 250 g almond paste (amandelspijs in Dutch)
- 2 tbsp slivered almonds
- 100 g golden raisin soaked in rum or hot water
- 1 tbsp apricot jam to glaze the cake
- To serve (optional)
- Vanilla ice-cream or freshly whipped cream
Instructions
If using, soak the raisins in some rum or warm water.
Preheat the oven to 175°C.
Line the base of a cake tin (± 27 cm diameter - those ones with removable sides) with some baking paper and grease the sides with butter.
Beat the egg in a small bowl and set aside.
In a large bowl mix the butter, caster sugar, self raising flour, half of the egg, vanilla sugar (or essence) and a pinch of salt. Easiest is to knead with your hands, mix until you get a firm dough and it all sticks together. Divide into 3 parts, wrap with cling film and set aside in the fridge to cool for at least 30 minutes (one part will be for the bottom, one for the sides and one for the top).
Peel and core the apples, cut them into slices or bitesize chunks.
To the apples add the cinnamon and sugar and toss to coat.
Remove one piece of the dough from the fridge and roll out with a rolling pin between 2 sheets of baking paper or cling film. Place the dough into the bottom of the cake tin and press into the corners. The dough might crumble a bit but that's no problem, just press into the tin so there are no holes.
Roll out the 2nd piece of dough, cut in to broad strips and press into the sides of the cake tin (same comment about crumbling dough as mentioned above).
Divide the bread crumbs over the dough base, this will soak up the juices from the apples so the base won't go soggy.
If using, roll out the almond paste, roughly into the size of the cake tin and lay on top of the bread crumbs.
Divide the half of the apples into the tin, sprinkle over the raisins, and top with the rest of the apples. It will be pretty full!
Now divide the 3rd ball of dough into 2 pieces and roll one out, slice and into ± 2 cm wide strips. Divide these over the top. Repeat with the rest of the dough and lay them over the top at 90° angle so you get a nice criss-cross pattern.
Brush the beaten egg over the dough to make it shine.
Sprinkle the almond slivers over the top.
Place the pie in the bottom 3rd of the oven and bake for 1 hour.
Remove from the oven and while still hot brush over apricot jam all over the dough (optional).
Let cool in the tin to set, as long as you can stand to wait, and serve with freshly whipped cream or vanilla ice-cream.
Oh and it's even better the next day. It will keep 2-3 days in the fridge in a closed off container.
