About an hour and a half drive from our house is a small town in Australia’s Blue Mountains called Bilpin – home to many wonderful orchards and birthplace of some truly excellent apple cider. Last weekend we decided to take a drive to make the most of the late Autumn sunshine and pick some Pink Lady Apples.
It was a glorious day and the apples were all kinds of perfect.
The biggest question was whether to make apple pie or apple crumble – I couldn’t decide so I decided por que no los dos and combined the two!
Ingredients
Filling
- 4-5 cups peeled, cored and thinly sliced apple – how much you need will depend on how deep your pie dish is
- about 2 tsp lemon juice
- 3 cups water
- 1 cup tightly packed brown sugar
- 2-3 cinnamon sticks
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/3 cup cornflour
Crust
- 2 x 340gm packets vanilla or butter cake mix
- 1 cup shredded coconut (use desiccated if you don’t have a food processor)
- 240gm butter, chopped
Crumble
- leftover base mix
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1/4 cup processed bran
- 2 tbsp shredded coconut
- chopped nuts if desired
Method
Filling
Sprinkle the lemon juice over the apple slices to stop them from going brown and set aside.
Combine 2.5 cups of the water, sugar and spices in a saucepan and mix well. Slowly bring to the boil, stirring gently with a balloon whisk. Combine remaining water and cornflour and add to pot, and continue to stir so that it mixes in smoothly. Simmer until the mixture starts to caramelise and thicken.
Add apples to saucepan and simmer gently until the apples are tender. Don’t overcook them here as they will cook more in the oven when the pie is baking. Stir every now and then to make sure that it doesn’t stick and that all of the apples are stewing evenly.
Once the apples are done, remove from heat and set aside to cool completely.
Crust
Note: My pie tin is a deep one – if you only have a shallow pie tin, halve the crust ingredients.
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse on high speed until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Spray your pie tin lightly with oil and press the crust mix into it evenly, making sure you pack it down well. The crust should be nice and densely packed, and extend all the way up the sides of the tin. You should have a good amount of the mix leftover to use as the base for the crumble.
Blind bake the crust for about 15-20 minutes in a moderate oven (180 degrees) or until it is golden brown, turning as needed. The crust will puff up, just press if back down with the back of a spoon or a spatula a few times during the baking time.
Once it’s golden, remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
Crumble
Combine leftover crust mixture, oats, coconut, bran and nuts (if using) and squeeze into a soft dough. Refrigerate for about 5 minutes while you assemble the pie.
Using a colander or slotted spoon, drain most of the syrup from the apples and reserve in a bowl for later.
Load the pie crust up with apples, break the crumble dough over the top and bake for approximately 15-20 minutes in a moderate oven or until the top is golden brown. Turn the pie as needed so it browns evenly.
Remove from oven, cool in the tin for about 15 minutes so the crust can ‘set’.
De-pan it, then slice and serve with ice cream and extra syrup drizzled over the top.