ingredients
for the crust:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbs sugar
12 tbs very cold unsalted butter (cut it into small cubes and place in the fridge to cool)
1/3 cup cold vegetable shortening such as “spry”
1/2 cup ice water
for the filling:
6 large apples (I used whatever apples I had, but nothing too tart)
zest of 1 orange
1 tbs freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 egg beaten with 1 tbs water (egg wash)
1. Make your crust. Begin by combining the flour, salt and sugar into a large bowl and mix with a hand mixer. Add the butter and shortening. Mix until the butter is the size of small peas. Add the ice water as the you continue to mix. Continue to mix until little clumps form, so that the mixture looks like gigantic bread crumbs. Dump onto a floured table and gather the little crumbs together to form two balls – one slightly larger than the other. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for thirty minutes.
2. Preheat your oven to 190C.
3. Make your filling. Combine zests, juices, flour, salt, sugar, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg in a bowl.
4. Take your pie dough and roll the larger ball out with a rolling pin so that it covers the bottom, sides, and slightly hangs off the rim of a 9inch pan. Brush the edges of the rim with egg wash. Place the filling inside.
5. Take the smaller dough ball and roll it out so that it covers the top of the pie. Press the edges of the rim together (crimp) with the tips of a fork, creating a pattern as you do (see pictures above). Brush the entire top of the pie with egg wash and sprinkle about 1 tsp sugar on top. Cut a few triangle shaped slits in the middle of the pie to let the air escape and juices flow out of while it cooks.
6. Place the pie in the oven on a baking tray. Bake for 1 hour to 1 1/4 hours, until the crust on top is browned and juices flow out of the slits. If the pie looks as though it is burning while it is cooking, turn down the heat.
7. Let rest for at least 30 minutes. Serve with ice cream. I had homemade, creamy passion fruit ice cream and it was also great with the apple pie.
