Chicken pecking

[Martin B]

Recipe please! Mum has got me some cooking apples!

[Laura007]

easy peasy version

 

get a packet of ready made short crust pastry, or make your own.

grease a pie dish. with butter.

roll out half your pastry and line the dish. trim off the excess

 

the appley bit

 

slice up your apples and chuck them in a bowl, add a good pinch of cinnamon and a handfull of sultanas. stir it all up.

 

put your apple mix into the lined pie dish.

 

roll out the rest of your pastry and pop it on top of the apple mix. squash it down around the edges and trim of the excess.

 

with a knife make a couple of slits on the top to allow the steam to come out.

 

bake in a moderate oven until the pastry is nice and golden brown.

 

(to get an egg in this recipe, you could egg wash the pastry before you put it in the oven!)

 

if you dont have a pie dish use a plate that you can put in the oven. it easier to line and you can serve straight off it!

 

enjoy.

 

or have a look at these i think you might find one you like.

http://fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=apple+pie

[Martin B]

Off to buy some pastry!

[Laura007]

forgot to mention, you can put some suger in with the apples it they are a tad tart!

 

also you can cook your apples abit before hand if you want.

 

put a bit of butter in pan, slice your apples up and just cook them so they are JUST going soft.

[Guest]

Off to buy some pastry!

 

 

buy some pastry?? - make some Martin!!

 

 

Phil

[Martin B]

How would you make it?

 

THe shop didn't have any!

[Cate in NZ]

Shortcrust pastry is easy Martin

 

The general rule is half fat to flour, and you need to keep it very cool and gently rub the fat into the flour using your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. If you want a sweet pastry you can then add some sugar, either caster or icing sugar, probably around half the weight of sugar as you've used for fat, and mix it in. Then add a little water and mix it together, adding water little by little until a dry-ish dough results. You don't want to get it too wet and sticky.

 

It's often recommended to let the dough rest then in the fridge for an hour or so, this is because with pastry making you really want to prevent gluten being released from the flour, and keeping it cool at all stages of pastry making helps inhibit this, chilling after making the dough inhibits it again. Too much gluten will make pastry chewy and hard, like bread, when pastry should be light and crisp.

 

Then roll it out...... and stick it on top of your stewed apples, nice to "paint" it with an eggy milk mixture before baking as this helps it to turn golden during cooking, and maybe sprinkle a little bit more sugar on the top if you like.

 

How much pastry to make the half fat to flour rule is very flexible, so you can make infinite quantities. So it depends how big your pie is going to be, and if you want pastry top and bottom. I'd suggest that pastyr on the bottom is probably worth giving a miss because of all the baking blind stuff.... too much hassle, so put your stewed apples in a deep dish and fling a pastry crust on top. For that 200g flour & 100g butter/ margarine would make ample I'm sure..... then 50g sugar if you want to add that too. Oh, and I nearly forgot, but a pinch of salt is generally recommended too.

Or, don't bother adding water to the breadcrumbs mix..... then call it an apple crumble instead Yummy with custard

 

Don't bother making puff pastry. I tried it once.... too much like hard work.... if you want that then I'd seriously suggest buying it

[Martin B]

Thanks Kate!

[The Dogmother]

Yum!

 

We've been gathering free fruit and making loads of summer pudding - chop up fruit into a bowl, add a little sugar or honey. Mix up sponge mixture and pour over the fruit. Bake. eat.

[Laura007]

what did you do with the apples??