French Apple Pie

Golden deliciousness

I need to make this apple pie. An apple pie without sneaky cinnamon or nutmeg. I may like cinnamon on wings or nutmeg in French scalloped potatoes but hands off my apple pie! I only came to know of such apple pies when Erdina made it for us, not only that she also cooked us a 5-course authentic French dinner! Thanks to her Swiss boarding school days and years in Paris. And that completely renewed my outlook of apple pies. Though I still eye most pies suspiciously...

It's probably a tad (very) obvious that I'm terrible at baking (skills or whatsoever, see the wayward pleating of pie crust!) but this recipe is too easy that I couldn't pass up. Thankfully it did turn out in a crown of perfect golden brown with Robin's stamp of approval (he ate up the last slice when I wasn't looking!)

Ingredients

• 4 red apples
• 4 tbs butter (salted)
• 1 tbs lemon juice
• ¼ cup caster sugar 
• 1 (cheat) sheet frozen shortcrust pastry 
• Icing sugar, for dusting (optional)
• Crème fraîche, or whipping cream to serve

Adapted from French: The Secrets of Classic Cooking Made Easy

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 190°C
2. Peel, quarter and core the apples. I sliced 8 pieces out of each apple 
3. Toss sliced apples with lemon juice and sugar until well coated
4. Melt butter in a large non-stick pan over medium heat and add apples
5. Stir frequently for about 10-15 minutes until apples are tender and golden brown in thick syrup. Turn the heat up high if it's too watery. This step prevents soggy crust
6. On lightly floured kitchen top, roll out thawed pastry. Transfer pastry sheet to a baking dish lined with butter and spoon in the cooked apples
7. Trim off the excess pastry and pleat in the borders. I pleated it like what I learnt from Use Real Butter for Chinese dumplings! Hehe, I'm sure you can do it any other way, nicely :)
8. Bake the pie for 30-40 minutes until pastry is crisp and browned
9. Let cool for 5 minutes out of the oven and dust with icing sugar 
10. Serve warm with crème fraîche and don't look away until every slice is in your tummy!

The only kind of apple pie for moi :)

These are probably not my best photos, well they are kind-of from a single-angle but it wasn't because greediness took over, in fact quite the opposite. I took too long to take the shots that the later top shots (and other angles) are slowly drying up so I could only settle for the first few shots that truly emanates just-out-the-oven deliciousness! The flaw my camera spotted wasn't telling to my taste bud (or tummy), it was still delectably warm after the shoot :)