This apple custard fillo crinkle pie is my quirky imagining of a most happy union between the Austrian Apfelstrudel (apple strudel) and the Greek Galaktoboureko (custard pie).
It’s a twice baked dessert that ensures the crispiest fillo and the creamiest baked vanilla custard in one ready to serve dish. Don’t be deterred by the concept of baking twice. Honestly, I think it’s the easiest version of my 3 apple pie recipes. There’s no need to wrangle finicky short crust pastry with this spiced-apple and custard crinkle pie.
And you can break the recipe across 2 days. I make the apple filling the day before I want to serve the dessert. You can also freeze the filling so it’s ready to go down the track.
As baked fillo will not stay crisp in the fridge, I aim to take the pie out of the oven after its second bake just before my guests arrive or just before dessert time, if I want to serve it warm.
Make sure you watch the video that steps out how to form the spiced-apple filled rosettes.
I’ve kept cinnamon and ginger on my apple and sultana pie filling roll call but I’ve swapped out the usual nutmeg for cardamon. And, after the sultanas finish plumping up in verjuice, you boil down the leftover verjuice into a sticky thick syrup. The syrup is later added back into the filling. No waste here!
And check out this versatile apple pie filling in my apple hand pies recipe and apple and sultana lattice pie recipe.
Apple pie filling ingredients
I prefer to use 2 types of apples in my pie filling, with a granny smith and pink lady being my favourite combination. The pink lady tend towards the sweet-tart side, while the granny smith are just a more tart than sweet. Both hold their shape well when baked.
I spent some pretty fruitless (sorry pun intentional) years trying to get my apple pie filling to set properly without flour and was always left with a flood of running pie filling. So I’m back to using flour. No one is going to know anyway. You cook out the flour taste before the pie hits the oven.
This week’s crinkle fillo pie was created with ingredients 100% sourced from The Standard Market Company, Southport.
Apple pie filling
To get the best out of the apples, my pie filling recipe involves macerating the apples in lemon juice and brown sugar. This ensures that the chopped apples don’t go brown and they start to release their juice. The apples even start to soften up a bit so the cooking time will be shorter.
Apple and sultana fillo rosettes
Each rosette for my apple crinkle pie recipe is formed with 2 sheets of fillo sheets. I use Carême fillo pastry sheets but most brands have sheets with similar dimensions.
I prefer to use clarified butter when making fillo pastries. You can also use ghee. I admit I am a bit lazy with my technique here. I melt the butter in batches and then pour off the clear butter, leaving the white milk solids behind. And full disclosure, I always overestimate the butter I need for fear of not having enough. So please don’t hold it against me if you have some leftover clarified butter! Just pop it in the fridge and put it to good use later. It has a high smoke point so you can use it in your cooking and frying.
As demonstrated in the video of the fillo technique, it’s important that the filling is not sealed in a roll of fillo pastry. The folds I have made keep the top of the apple filled rosette open so the steam can escape while they bake. This technique ensures that the apple rosettes don’t burst. It’s important not to roll up the rosettes too tightly for the same reason.
Picking your baking dish
I have used a 30cm round porcelain quiche pan that is 4cm deep. I only made 7 rosettes as I wanted to ensure there was plenty of room for the custard. Had I not been faffing about for a photo worthy baking dish, I would have baked this apple and custard crinkle pie in a large rectangular roasting pan. That way you should be able to fit at least eight rosettes.
Just remember no loose bottom pans, you don’t want a flood of custard across your bench!
I use one box of Carême filo pastry with 18 fillo sheets. Most Australian brands of fillo contain 18 to 20 sheets per box. You always want to allow for a couple of badly torn sheets but it’s OK to use them as well as you will have always have two layers. You should be able to get eight rosettes from one box of fillo and one batch of the apple pie filling.
Make sure you brush the baking dish well with melted butter before adding the spiced apple fillo rosettes.
For the best results when baking the custard, you want to start with a baking dish that will allow the rosettes to be 3 to 4 cm apart. Remember the apple fillo parcels will expand while baking.
Baking the fillo rosettes
Preheat the oven to 180°C fan forced or 200°C not fan forced.
Bake for approximately 30 minutes. You want the apple fillo parcels to be a deep golden colour. They only have to go back in the oven briefly when baking the custard.
Prepare the vanilla custard during this first bake. Strain the custard into a 1 litre pouring jug and set aside until the fillo rosettes come out of the oven.
How much is enough custard?
How much is enough custard? Excellent question but one that it is difficult to answer! The goal is to have the custard come half way up the sides of the rosettes and fill the gaps between them.
You can pour in the custard immediately after the first bake. Pour slowly into the gaps around the rosettes. You don’t want to wet the crisp fillo tops of rosettes. If you have any custard left over, you can pop it in a buttered ramekin or small baking dish and bake it along with the pie.
This custard sets pretty fast and you don’t want to overbake it or it won’t be silky smooth. Return the crinkle pie to the oven at 160°C fan forced (180°C if not fan forced) and bake for about 10 minutes. You want the custard to look just set as it will continue to set on the bench as it cools. Give it a jiggle, the custard should still wobble but not be runny.
You can serve the custard fillo crinkle pie warm out of the oven or at room temperature. Leftovers need to be refrigerated.
Apple Custard Fillo Crinkle Pie
Equipment
- 30cm diameter x 4cm deep quiche pan (substitute large roasting pan)
- 2 litre jug for microwave (or small pot)
- Citrus juicer
- Large wide bottomed soup pot or casserole
- Pastry brush
- Stand mixer or electric hand beaters
- Large saucepan
- 1 litre pouring jug
Ingredients
Apple and sultana fillo rosettes:
- 1 box fillo pastry sheets
- 100 g sultanas
- 375 ml verjuice (optional)
- 1.2 kg baking apples (6 to 7 medium)
- 1 medium lemon
- 100 g light brown sugar
- 20 g white sugar
- 35 g white all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoon ground cardamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons verjuice syrup (optional)
- 2 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 250 g unsalted butter (for fillo pastry)
- Grated fresh nutmeg (optional to finish the dish)
Vanilla custard:
- 50 g egg yolks (3 to 4 large eggs)
- 100 g caster sugar
- 40 g cornstarch
- 500 g whole milk
- 150 g heavy pure cream (minimum 30% fat)
- 1 vanilla bean
Instructions
Note: If the fillo is frozen, defrost the pastry overnight in the fridge.
Apple pie filling:
- Bring verjuice to boil in small pot or in a microwave safe 2 litre jug (see notes). Add sultanas and set aside allowing the raisins to plump up.
- Juice lemon and set aside.
- Peel, quarter, core and slice apples (about 5-7mm thick). Add to large wide bottomed pot as you go.
- Sprinkle lemon juice over apples as you work to prevent browning.
- Mix in brown sugar and set pot aside for 20 to 30 minutes.
- In a small bowl mix combine white sugar, flour, cinnamon, ginger, cardamon and salt.
- Once the sultanas have plumped up, drain well and reserve verjuice liquid. Set sultanas aside.
- In a small pan boil the verjuice until reduced to a thick syrup and set aside to cool. Keep an eye on it as it boils down, it can quickly get too thick and burn.
- Set apple mixture over a medium heat and sprinkle over flour mixture, stirring well after each addition.
- Cook apples and stir continuously until the apple juices have thickened and start to catch on the bottom of the pan.
- Remove from heat and add sultanas, verjuice syrup, butter, and vanilla extract. Stir to combine.
- Cool filling and refrigerate until needed.
Apple fillo rosettes and first bake:
- Preheat the oven to 180°C fan forced (200°C not fan forced).
- Melt 250g butter in microwave our on stove top. If you wish to clarify the butter, gently pour off the clear butter fat, leaving the white milk solids behind. Set aside in a bowl.
- Unroll the fillo pastry sheets and cover with a damp tea towel so they don’t dry out.
- Working on the kitchen bench, place one fillo sheet lengthwise in front of you and use a pastry brush to brush thoroughly with melted butter (refer to the video in the blog if in doubt about the steps that follow).
- Top with a second fillo sheet and brush with butter again.
- Fold the two fillo sheets in half lengthwise. This gives you four layers of fillo with a fold along one long side and open fillo petals along the other side.
- Take ½ cup of apple pie filling and run the filling in a thin line down the centre of the fillo.
- Fold in half lengthwise over the filling making sure the long edges meet. Gently smooth the sheets up against the line of pie filling.
- You should end up with one side of the long roll creating a fold holding in the apple filling and with the extra fillo layers lying flat.
- Brush the finished fillo pastry roll with butter.
- Loosely roll up the filled pastry to form a rosette.
- Hold the rosette in one hand, with the apple filling side in the palm of your hand and with the fillo petals standing upright. Brush the rosette all around with butter. Then gently press the fillo petals down to form the top of the rosette.
- Place the rosette in a well buttered baking pan.
- Repeat 5 to 7 times making sure you leave 3 to 4cm between each rosette.
- Bake for approximately 30 minutes until the fillo rosettes have turned a deep gold.
- Remove from oven and set aside until the vanilla custard is ready.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 160°C fan forced (180°C if not fan forced).
Vanilla custard and second bake:
- While the fillo rosettes are baking make the vanilla custard.
- Using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or electric hand beaters, beat the egg yolks and sugar. Start on low and increase the speed to medium high, until the egg mix is a pale yellow.
- Sift in the cornstarch and beat on medium until fully incorporated.
- Split the vanilla bean pod in half lengthwise with a small paring knife and scrape out the seeds with the back of the knife.
- Add the milk, cream, vanilla bean seeds and split vanilla bean pod to a large saucepan over medium heat.
- Stir the milk mixture constantly until it just comes to a boil. Remove the vanilla bean pod.
- Pour the hot milk mixture gradually over the egg mixture and beat on medium-low speed until it forms a smooth runny custard.
- Return the custard to the saucepan on medium heat and stir constantly until thickened. You want to achieve a thick custard that is still pourable but not runny.
- Strain the custard into a 1 litre pouring jug and set aside until the fillo rosettes come out of the oven.
- Whisk the custard briefly to distribute the vanilla seeds before pouring carefully between the rosettes in the baking dish. Be sure not to get the custard on the crisp tops of the fillo rosettes.
- The custard should come no more than halfway up the sides of the rosettes.
- Make sure you’ve reduced the oven temperature to 160°C fan forced (180°C not fan forced).
- Bake the spiced-apple and custard crinkle pie for about 10 minutes or until just set.
- Remove from the oven and sit on the bench for at least 15 minutes so the custard finishes setting.
- If using, grate some fresh nutmeg over the crinkle pie.
- Serve the pie warm just out of the oven or at room temperature (refrigerate any leftovers).