Apple & Sultana Lattice Pie
A quick and easy apple and sultana pie? It will be if you use frozen pre-rolled shortcrust pastry. All you need to focus on is making my delicious cardamon spiced apple and sultana pie filling.
Equipment
- 23 cm diameter x 5cm high pie tin
- Oven roasting bag
- Dried beans or ceramic pie weights to fill the pie tin
- Citrus juicer
- 2 litre jug for microwave (or small pan)
- Large wide bottomed soup pot or casserole
- Sieve
- Small pan
- Baking trays
- Pastry wheel or paring knife
- Swivel head vegetable peeler
- Ruler
- Pastry brush
Ingredients
- 2 boxes Carême Sour Cream Short Crust Pastry Sheet
- 150 g sultanas
- 375 ml verjuice (optional)
- 2 kg baking apples (8 to10 medium)
- 1 large lemon or two small lemons
- 150 g light brown sugar
- 30 g white sugar
- 60 g white all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1 tablespoon ground cardamon
- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons verjuice syrup (optional)
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Assembly:
- Extra flour for dusting bench and pastry
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons water
- 3 tablespoons coffee sugar
Instructions
Apple pie filling:
- Defrost the boxes of pastry in the fridge the night before.
- Bring verjuice to boil in small pot or in a microwave safe 2 litre jug (see notes). Add sultanas and set aside.
- Juice lemon and set aside.
- Peel, 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 & salt.
- Once the sultanas have plumped up, drain and reserve verjuice liquid. Set sultanas aside.
- In a small pan boil verjuice until reduced to a thick syrup and set aside to cool.
- Set apples over a medium heat and sprinkle over flour mixture, stirring well after each addition.
- Cook 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.
Prepare pie crusts:
- Assemble equipment needed to create the pastry crusts: dried beans, pie pan, baking trays, ruler, swivel grater, pastry brush, pastry wheel, small sieve, baking paper, oven roasting bag, and a flour shaker (or extra flour with a fine sieve).
- Use one box of pastry at a time to prepare pie crusts (keep the rest in the fridge).
Assemble bottom crust:
- Unroll pastry and cut two 9cm x 36cm lengths to use for the sides of the bottom crust (the rest of the pastry is for the lattice top).
- Gently lay the strips of pastry around the edge of the pan and drape over the edge of the pan. Arrange the strips to go 1cm onto the base of the pan (see image in blog). Brush the edges of the pastry that will overlap with a little water and press into the pan to seal.
- Gently press the pastry to the sides of the pan, using your fingers to press into the fluted sides (if using that style of pan).
- Unroll the second box of pastry and cut a 21cm diameter base out of the pastry at one end (the rest is for the lattice top).
- Bush the pastry strip along the bottom of the pan with a little water, then place the circle of pastry into the pan.
- Gently press the circle into place, sealing the pastry sides with the bottom of the crust around the whole base of the pan (see image in blog).
- Place the pie base back into the fridge for at least 30 minutes before blind baking.
Blind baking pie shell:
- Preheat oven 180°C fan forced (200°C not fan forced).
- Whisk egg and water together in a small bowl to make egg wash and set aside.
- Place the pie shell on a baking tray and prick the base of the shell all over with a fork.
- Crumple up an oven roasting bag (can substitute baking paper here) and line the pie shell with the bag, draping it over the rim of the pan and pressing it gently into the corners of the pan.
- Fill the lined base with dried beans or pie weights.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes and then remove from the oven and reduce the temperature to 160°C fan forced (180°C fan forced).
- Carefully lift the weights out, by bringing the edges of the oven bag together to form a parcel (have a heat proof container ready for the beans).
- Brush the pie crust well with egg wash and return to oven.
- Bake another 10 to 15 minutes until the crust is golden brown and is almost fully baked (10 to 15 minutes more).
- Cool the blind baked crust completely and leave it in the pie pan.
- Gently shave away the excess pastry from the top down using a swivel grater, until the excess pastry falls off and the top edge of the pie pan is revealed.
Creating the lattice top:
- Draw a circle the diameter of the top of the pie tin on a piece of baking paper and set aside.
- Remove the leftover pastry from the fridge and cut out strips for the lattice work.
- The number of strips will vary according to how much pastry you have left to work with.
- The pie in images uses 6 x 4cm wide strips and 6 x 2cm wide strips.
- Flip over the baking paper with the drawn circle (pencil marking towards the bench) and assemble a lattice pattern (example image in blog) on the baking paper.
- As you are making the lattice, anytime the pastry starts to warm up, pause and chill the pastry again before continuing. Dust with flour as you go.
- Slide the finished lattice top with the baking paper in place underneath onto a baking sheet and refrigerate until firm.
Assembling & baking the pie:
- Preheat oven to 180°C fan forced (200°C not fan forced).
- Fill the trimmed blind baked pie shell with the spiced-apple pie filling to just below the top of the pie shell.
- Press filling in gently with an offset spatula or spoon and smooth out the top of the filling (you may have some leftover filling).
- Remove the chilled lattice pastry crust from the fridge and gently slide it off the baking paper onto the pie.
- Press away any overhanging dough.
- Brush egg wash over the lattice top crust, followed by a sprinkle of coffee sugar.
- Bake on the bottom shelf of the oven for approximately one hour. The pie should be golden brown. The apples need to be bubbling away surrounded by a clear thick syrup. A knife inserted into the filling should come out hot to the touch.
- If the top of the pie starts to brown too much loosely cover it loosely with aluminum foil.
- Remove the pie from the oven and rest it for at least an hour before cutting it to allow the filling to set.
Notes
Apple varieties: Make sure you pick apples that will hold their shape well when baked. Braeburn apples are great for baking but can be hard to source in Australia. I like to use a mix of Granny Smith and Pink Lady in my baking but its fine to use just one variety.
Can’t find verjuice: Most groceries stores carry verjuice today and my favourite is Maggie Beer’s brand. It’s acidic and made from grapes but it is not as acidic as vinegar. It’s fine if you can’t source it or don’t have any on hand. You can use boiling water for soaking the sultanas. And you can either omit the syrup entirely or experiment with some other sticky acidic flavours. One tablespoon of a balsamic glaze/condiment would work well.
Dried beans or ceramic pie weights? I use both dried beans and ceramic pie weights when blind baking. But the pie weights can be very expensive when you need enough to fill a deep dish pie. And, I have never had success with only filling the base part way, the sides always collapse. So I have acquired a couple of kilos of dried beans that I use over and over again and store in a sealed container. I don’t use rice as it is too finicky, flies everywhere and tends to leave a rice pattern in your baked crust.
Blind baking with an oven roasting bag? I like using oven roasting bags to line my pie bases before adding dried beans and blind baking. They are a big double layered rectangle so you’re sure to cover the base of your pie, no matter the size. I crumple up the bag first. I find the oven bag conforms to the shape of the base much more readily then baking paper. But baking paper works well too. Crumple it up before fitting it into your base. Always remember to ensure your pastry base is well chilled before blind baking.
Don’t have enough dough left to make a lattice top? If you want to be sure of a fully covered and tightly latticed top crust, you will need 3 boxes of Carême short crust pastry. But if you only bought 2, and you think you’ll be a bit short, don’t panic. There are plenty of ways to decorate the top of your pie. You can just put pastry stripes one way across the pie or you can create a border of strips around the edge of the pie, leaving the centre of the pie open. And you can abandon the lattice effect altogether and decorate the top of your pie with some other interesting geometric shapes.
Coffee sugar: In Australia, coffee sugar is a large crystal sugar that is less refined than white sugar. It gets its golden colour from being made with sugar cane juice that retains some molasses. You can substitute other forms of sugar such as demerara or granulated white sugar.
Where do I bake pies in my oven? The goal, as always, is no soggy bottoms! And you can best achieve this by baking on the lowest rack in your oven or on a pizza stone. Make sure you heat the stone well in advance of the bake. Some people bake their pies on the bottom of their ovens and not on a rack. You may need to experiment to see what works best for you. But you can be guaranteed that when the top of the pie starts to look nice and golden, the bottom will need a little longer in the oven.
Kitchen scale: If you are going to bake, you need a kitchen scale. It’s really in the necessity column not the optional column. You don’t need to spend a fortune on them, decent ones can be bought for about $70. The expensive ones break down just as quickly as the cheaper versions. But I would recommend you go for a known brand from a reputable kitchen shop.