Apple Pie with Mixed Spice Pastry

Apple Pie with Mixed Spice Pastry

Serves 6 – 8

You will also need a loose-bottomed tin approx 9½ in x 1½ in deep.

For the pastry:

•  350g (12oz) plain flour


• 2 level tablespoons of mixed spice


• 150g (6oz) butter


• 40g (1½ oz) icing sugar


• 1 whole egg and 2 egg yolks

For the filling:

• 2 large Bramley apples


• 3 Cox apples


• 150ml (¼ pint) orange juice


• 50g (2oz) light Muscovado sugar

To make the pastry, mix the flour, mixed spice and icing sugar together and rub in the butter. (I use a food processor). Work in the eggs to create a dough and chill it for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 190C (375F, Gas mark 5). Roll out half of the pastry, reserving the other half for the top. Line the tin. Bake blind for 10 minutes, and not cooking it thoroughly. Peel, quarter, core and slice all the apples in a pan with the orange juice and sugar. Cook until the Bramley apple disintegrates and absorbs the orange juice. Remove from the heat. Roll the remaining pastry larger than the pie and dampen the rim of the dish/pastry. Spoon the cooked apple into the pastry case and cover with pastry. Press the edges gently together, brush the top with a little milk and dust with caster sugar, if liked. Make a slit in the centre of the pastry lid for the steam to escape. Place in oven for 20 minutes, until pastry becomes golden brown. Serve with cream or ice-cream.